One Step Ahead
by R0cketMan
Summary: The Titans return from Tokyo, but right away learn that evil truly never rests. Can the team stop one of Robin's oldest foes? How will this green haired madman effect not only the team, but all of Jump City? BBxRae RobxStar I DO NOT OWN Teen Titans or any of the characters in this Fic.
1. Prologue

Hello everyone! This is my first FanFic so go easy on me! Just wanted to let you all know that this and the first chapter WILL be quite short, but trust me you'll be in for a read after you get past those two. Also I will try my best to update weekly, but I can't make any promises! Except that I DO promise that this story WILL have an ending so feel free to follow! Reviews are more than welcomed! Enjoy!

* * *

He sat in the center of the shadowy realm that he resided in, allowing himself to be swallowed in darkness while deep in thought. Slade never really minded the dark; in fact, he welcomed it. To him it was his canvas, he felt that his already highly intelligent mind would relish in the nothingness so he could paint and plot with his thoughts. Unfortunately, that's what his days had consisted of lately, plotting.

After he regained his flesh and blood from the inter-dimensional demon, Trigon, he had discovered that his body needed time to recover properly. Deciding that it would probably be best, he rode the bench and watched as his favorite group of teen heroes vanquished the Brotherhood of Evil and go across the world to take down a foreign threat, while he regained his strength. He was quite impressed with how the Titans had handled the Brotherhood, and as the team grew stronger, he did as well.

Months had gone by and he had finally been exercising and weight lifting at the same peak he had before his deathly ordeal with his apprentice gone wrong, Terra. His agility had started to return along with the final touches of his muscle tone. For months he sat back, for months he built from the ground up, and for months his life had been nothing but organizing his thoughts and thinking of every potential outcome to every possibility that could be portrayed.

Though he was no stranger to planning out his actions, his inactive status had lasted longer than any plotting he'd ever done, and he was beginning to grow impatient. Enough was enough; now is the time to spring back into action and haunt their dreams. So there he sat, wallowing in the shadows of his domain with his head resting on his fist, thinking. Eyeing the darkness as pictures from his imagination began to fill in the void with each phase of his plan that was dissected carefully. The concentration was broken when he heard the sound of metal being rustled somewhere behind him, he knew that it could only be one his robotic minions that he sent off to collect a few supplies to jumpstart his plot.

With a sigh, he rose to his feet and clapped his hands, switching on the lights, and spoke without turning his head, "Report." He said smoothly.

Nothing.

Finding it odd, that his creations didn't respond to him immediately, he restated himself more firmly, "Report." He said again, only to be succeeded by silence.

Something just wasn't right about his minions not responding to their only leader. He turned around to see what the ordeal was, but stopped before he could even start his walk over when he saw the last thing he thought he'd ever see. There his five minions stood, faces altered, and he knew that the change was the trademark of only one disturbed man.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" he said, narrowing his only eye.

Slade started his walk over to the one that stood more in front than the others to watch a playback on the screens behind the faces, knowing that his robots always recorded events whenever they were sent on missions so he could study the film for his benefit. Standing in front of the minion, he opened its face and was greeted with a _jack_ jumping right out of the crater. This hardly startled Slade, but his theory of who was behind this was becoming more and more clear, and that would be a problem if it was true. The last thing he needed was someone who wasn't in their right mind to start making waves around the city. The jack bounced a few times on its slinky, its white face with red lips and green eyes looking eerily at Slade, before exploding.

Slade was sent flying back as the blast took out all the minions, he was starting to become rather annoyed. Lying on his back still, he could hear maniacal laughter in the distance. It was at first faint, but with each passing second its volume grew, till it sounded as if the laughter surrounded him. He sat up and began to rise to his feet, shifting into a fighting stance, prepared for whatever nuisance was going to be sent at him.

His attention was directed to his large TV screen, it had turned on by itself. He rotated to see what could possibly be displayed on the screen, and froze at the sight that was before him.

A Joker card.

The laughter erupted after he saw the latest programming, and to any other person it would have made their skin crawl. Slade's theory was confirmed, he was not scared of this man but he knew a threat when he saw one.

"Why are _you_ here?" He said very grimly.

Slade listened as the laughter tried to calm itself down so it could respond.

"Just paying an old friend a visit." The ominous carefree voice replied.

"I'm not your friend."

"True." The voice said, "but you _are_ friends with an old pal of mine, and I think I want him and his bunk buddies all to myself."

Slade wasn't given a chance to respond when he heard beeping from the TV screen, it began at an easy pace and started to quicken. His eye widened as he started to make a feeble attempt at running for the exit. He wasn't even close before his body was engulfed in flames.

Meanwhile, a purple figure sat on the edge of a building with his legs dangling, smiling mischievously at the sudden burst of flames that came from beneath the building that was in front of him.

He licked his lips and slicked his green hair back with his hand, "You should smile more often, Deathstroke."

He rose to his feet before straightening his purple vest, then looked out into the ocean and observed the giant yellow T that sat not far from the city. His smug smile never relented as the gears in his head spun after the sprouting of the seeds to his plan.


	2. Why So Serious?

And here is Chapter 1! Enjoy!

* * *

"Silkie! Oh how I've missed you during our absence in the country of Japan!" Exclaimed Starfire, as she gave a bone, or rather muscle destroying hug to the pet larvae.

She had finally gotten a chance to greet the creature after completing her unpacking from the incredibly eventful trip, and noticed that she was the only one in the common room; she was ahead of the others.

She held the oversized maggot out with extended arms and green eyes as wide as the room itself, "Oh how I have so many stories to tell you!" She whispered, "Robin and I are finally doing 'dating', I believe that's what it's called on this planet…" She said softly with glee.

Her eyes almost bulged out of her skull when the merciless ring of the alarm sounded throughout the tower, along with the flashing of red lights. "I shall tell you about them when I make my return." She said as she smiled and patted the bug's head, all it seemed to do was smile back at her, unknowing of what was happening.

The room's emptiness vanished in seconds as Robin sprinted through the doorway as it slid open easily for him, "Star, there's trouble downtown, let's go! The others are waiting for us in the garage!" and just as quickly as he came, he was gone.

That's usually how it was with Robin, when there was trouble, you didn't ask any questions; you just dropped everything and got there as quick as possible. All Starfire did was nod, and quickly flew out the room down to the garage.

The others had been waiting for only a few seconds for the new couple to show up, once they did they all took their own source of transportation. Robin threw his helmet on and hopped on the R-Cycle, Cyborg jumped into 'baby' and gave the engine a roar before going off into the warm afternoon.

"Why don't bad guys ever decide to take a vacation?" Beast Boy said very dimly before he turned into a falcon.

Raven and Starfire gracefully took off in their own unique way; being behind the other two filling the sky with her, she noticed that they were flying rather… close.

They touched down in front of the Jump City bank, the apparent location of a heist. Robin had been very aware of every possible exit route there would be, since there had been plenty attempts on the building before; he was prepared to not let a soul out.

Before they entered, Robin, being the leader, barked out orders, "Starfire, flank in the back. Beast Boy, go in before any of us as an insect, then get the jump on them. Once we hear the noise crank up the rest of us will come in and shut this whole thing down."

They all nodded, and the two advancers made their way in and around the building, anxiously wondering who they could be dealing with. Many of them figured that it could be the HIVE Five, since this was their type of petty crime to do. Robin listened intensely, until he heard the sounds of blasters and things being thrown around; that was the signal.

"Now!" He yelled.

The three that hung back sprang through the heavy bank door after Cyborg sent it flying with his sonic cannon. Running in, they came to a stop, what they saw certainly was not something that they had expected, to say the least. A group of Slade robots, that was nothing new, but their faces were painted. Their emotionless expressions were replaced with a white face, painted green eyes and a red smile. The sight looked terribly familiar to Robin, alarming him to an extent, but it wasn't a sure thing so he shoved it to the back of his mind.

"Titans, Go!" He finally bellowed, pulling out his boa staff.

Raven and Cyborg bolted to opposite directions while Robin pole vaulted forward, planting his foot onto the eerie face of one of the robots and came right back up with an uppercut to another robot that was approaching him, shattering its mandible. Pulling himself back together, he quickly drew a birdarang and threw it across the room, making a sweep around cutting the heads off three bots clean. After catching the Birdarang from its route of destruction, he looked around his surroundings, confirming that all bots had the creepy paint cast upon their faces. He also noticed that there weren't very many bots to begin with, so victory would be imminent.

Minutes passed before the last robot was thrown against the wall, easily falling apart. Raven began to scoop all of the would-be stolen money up in a ball of black aura, placing it back into the vault where it belonged. Robin stood near the safe keeping of money while Raven cleaned up, deep in his own thoughts.

'_This doesn't make sense,' _he thought with his eyes narrowing, '_since when does Slade do petty theft? And more importantly, what's he doing with that psychopath's artwork all over his tech?'_

He rubbed his chin as he asked himself questions that he knew he would never find an answer to, and made his way over to his friends who were standing amongst the mess that was created of bolts and metal trash. Each of them had their own face of confusion as they stood in dumbfounded silence, it wasn't everyday when Slade would have anything that wasn't dark or intimidating on his handiwork. Cyborg finally broke the silence, "So, when did Slade start clown college?"

Beast Boy knelt down to one robot's face to further examine it, "Who knows. Maybe he decided to lighten up and become more of a mumbo." He said, laughing at his own comparison.

"Or a Beast Boy?" Raven said with her deadpanned tone.

Beast Boy didn't have a chance to make any sort of response before the face of the robot opened, releasing a faded green colored gas right into the face of the changeling. The sudden burst startled the boy, sending him flying back a few feet from utter surprise into the open arms of Raven.

Her instincts took hold of her as she opened her arms up for him to have a soft landing on her chest, and unwillingly caught the changeling. With her blush being hidden from the shadow of her hood, she quickly pushed him back onto his own feet.

'_I should _not_ be blushing over something like that.'_ She thought to herself, adjusting her hood.

"BB, are you alright man?" Cyborg asked.

He was answered with a giggle.

Everyone quirked an eyebrow up as his giggle began to elevate into full hearted laughter, then to absolute hysteria.

They all eyed their friend curiously as he fell to the floor holding his stomach, eyes clenched shut.

"Please, did I miss something humorous?" Starfire asked, truly confused, still looking at the green hero.

"Yo man quit playin' around, it's time to go." Cyborg said, wondering what in the world could all of a sudden be so damn funny.

Robin just stared on with shock in his mind. It all started to hit him, brick by brick, who might have been behind this. The measly attempt at a bank heist, the clown faces, Beast Boy laughing his eyes out from a gas…

'_There's no way…' _He thought.

Beast Boy continued to laugh like a hyena.

'_It can't be…'_

Beast Boy opened his eyes, revealing the look of panic in them.

He couldn't stop.


	3. Masks

(A/N) Alright, here's where the story starts to get the wheels spinning! Review, favorite, and/or follow!

* * *

"Raven! Take Beast Boy and Cyborg and teleport into the medical bay! _Now_!" Robin yelled, practically screaming the last part, "When you get there, sedate him!"

Raven flinched at the sudden worry and volume his voice had, but reacted quickly and engulfed the said duo in black aura, transitioning through the floor; leaving only two Titans at the crime scene.

Robin stood over the robot with the now open face, and looked down on it with a menacing look. He knew this painting all too well, and it certainly didn't bring up good memories of clowns and carnivals. There was only one man who would pull off these types of antics, and it was nothing close to the standard of a regular clown that you could invite to a child's house party. His eyes narrowed as he could hear _his_ blood curdling laughter ring through his mind.

'_What could he be doing here?'_ Robin thought.

There usually was an automatic response to Robin whenever it came to how he was feeling, even as a Tameranian that was in touch with her emotions, Robin was usually tightly shut like the bank vault. For Starfire, it was easy for her to determine how others were feeling, even Raven wasn't as difficult. But Robin wore the same look of narrowed eyes everywhere he went, making him very difficult to read; the mask didn't help either. The only real time where it wasn't a problem was when he spoke kindly and/or visibly smiled.

She drifted her way over to him while he had his back to her, and reached her hand out to rest it on his shoulder, but stopped with her hand just above it and pulled it back over her chest.

'_He probably would tell me to not worry about it…'_ She thought.

She hung her head and began to float out of the bank before her boyfriend grabbed her hand with a gentle firmness.

"No Star, Stay." He said with ice in his veins, "I need you to help me look for anything that might give us a clue as to why exactly this happened."

The alien princess locked eyes with the masked hero. Starfire loved this boy, she truly did. His hell bent determination was one of the many things that she admired about him, but sometimes, it just would become scary. Hearing his stone hard voice made her look down on him with intimidated eyes. She then shook the feeling to the side as she remembered what her duties as a hero to the city were. Giving a strong nod, he turned and started his walk to the vault.

* * *

In the dimly lit medical bay, three teens shot through the bottom of the tile floor and came into fruition. With the black shield around them dissolving, Cyborg scooped the hardly breathing Beast Boy up in his arms and quickly placed him on the bed.

"Raven! Hold him down so I can get some anesthesia in him!" Cyborg commanded as he began to rummage through the medical supply cabinet to find a mask to put over his mouth.

If the empath heard his demand, she didn't show it. Raven stood and just stared bafflingly at the hysterical changeling that was near suffocating. Her eyes were wide, revealing how troubled she was at how the boy could just lay there and laugh his lungs out. What struck a nerve for her was the fear and panic in his eyes as he clutched his stomach, he clearly wanted to stop but it somehow just wasn't possible. She had grown to develop a bit of panic, beginning to breathe heavy from his maddening fright that was starting to redden his eyes. Her worry had chained her to cinderblocks, as her feet were suddenly just too heavy to lift while she was in her trance.

'_God why can't I stop!_' Beast Boy thought amidst the distress, '_I just want to stop! I can't die like this, especially not with Raven watching!'_

"_Raven!_" Cyborg now screamed, beginning to open a box of masks frantically.

She trembled at the yell, but had broken out of her trance. Raising her hand up to start pinning her friend down still, she could hear his throat start to scratch as his lungs begged for oxygen. His normal shining emerald eyes were beginning to swell with tears. Her eyes narrowed and began to glow a solid white as black bands formed on his body, restraining his legs, arms, and chest. It was difficult for Raven to concentrate her mind enough to harness her powers with her emotions all over the place; the only reason she had them bottled up just enough was Cyborg's scream bringing her back to reality.

Beast Boy's face started to darken in color as he became a more deathly green than his natural forest shade. Taking notice of this, Cyborg very quickly connected the mask to the anesthesia tanks and quickly placed it over the changeling's mouth. Letting the tank pump a quick mass amount of gas, he watched his friend begin to pull back his last breaths before they could leave him.

Control.

Finally he had it.

Sort of.

Beast Boy felt his eyes begin to become unbelievably heavy and his lungs begin to cease its workload.

'_Oh man… This is it… Raven…'_ He thought.

Cyborg smiled triumphantly as Beast Boy's hyena laugh had died down to a soft chuckle, then finally to silence. Watching his friends' chest rise and fall steadily, Cyborg gave a heavy sigh of relief as he leaned against the counter top. Rubbing his head, he remembered that he wasn't alone. He lifted his gaze to meet Raven's deadpan face.

Her face grew hard with unhappiness as she took her eyes off of her more favored Titan and looked at Cyborg's own.

"What was _wrong_ with him?" She said calmly, with anger clearly present in her voice.

Cyborg lifted his forearm up to read the sensors of his friend, and frowned at what his metal arm was telling him.

"Laughing gas." He said plainly.

Raven raised an eyebrow.

"What?" She said firmly.

"Laughing gas. So much that he would've eventually suffocated from lack of oxygen, and it looks like we got him just in time."

Raven couldn't believe it. She was mere _seconds_ away from losing this… special… boy and all because of **laughing **gas. She brought her eyes back to Beast Boy, and lost her rock hard face to let it soften, finally revealing how truly worried she was.

Sensing that his presence was no longer need, Cyborg stood tall on his metallic feet.

"He'll be fine. Don't worry Rae." And with that, he left the bay.

Raven kept her gaze on the door as Cyborg made his way out. She didn't do anything until she could feel him making his way down the hall. After confirming he was gone, she removed her hood and placed her hand on top of the unconscious changeling's own.

She looked on him with saddened eyes. The changeling was only a few breaths away from leaving her, and she just stood there dumbfounded when she should've been helping him. As annoyed as she was at her hesitance, she couldn't help but feel aggravated with the boy himself. She knew he didn't mean for this to happen by any means, but to leave her permanently would be unacceptable. She _couldn't_ accept it.

"Don't _ever_ do that again" she said with a hint of sadness.

With her emotions running amok in her head, she found this to be an appropriate time to meditate. She took her hand off her green friend's and held her arms out to the side and floated to a lotus position, beginning her mantra. Having all thought withdrawing from her mind, she slowly faded away, until she joined her friend in unconsciousness.

* * *

'_Oh man… I guess it's time to see what heaven looks like…' _an awaking Beast Boy thought.

Slowly allowing consciousness back into him, he was taken aback by the mind numbing soreness that was stored within his stomach, and the dryness of his throat. Not bothering to sit up, he fluttered his eyes open until the light that was above him was blinding his vision.

'_Sure is bright… Wait, I don't think heaven would look like the tower medical bay.'_

He put his hand over his eyes before looking around the room, and found a meditating empath right by his side. A gush of happiness did its best to smother the pain in his stomach. The girl he adored was there for him, whether it was willingly or not he didn't know, but either way was good enough for him.

He smiled and called out very hoarsely, "Rae?"

Her eyelids quivered as her name rang through her head like an alarm clock. No matter what the situation was, Raven would always find it irritating to have her concentration broken. She opened her eyes and saw Beast Boy was awake. He was looking at her with his shining emerald eyes.

"You're up," she said, easily dashing away her irritation with slight joy in her voice, and an even slighter smile.

He flashed a stupid grin before it was abruptly taken off by his deathly dry coughs. He pointed towards the sink as his coughs continued, signaling for something to drink. The harsh pain in his stomach and the desert like region that was his throat were beginning to win the battle against his happiness.

Remaining in her lotus position, Raven used her powers to pull a cup out to fill with water, and brought it over to Beast Boy. She slowly tilted it up into his mouth so he could indulge of the grace of something as plain as tap water.

After the liquid washed his throat like it was at a water park, he felt like he could practically sing from the pleasure the simple fluid brought him. Taking his last sip, he watched the black cup be taken from his lips and thrown into a recycle bin. He smiled at where the cup was being disposed of, pleased at the small effort of keeping the environment clean. He turned his head to look at Raven, and then noticed that she now was standing right next to him.

He tried not to let his surprise show as he spoke, "So, what was wrong with me?"

"The gas that was in your system was laughing gas." Beast Boy raised his eyebrows, "But very large amounts. Your respiratory system wasn't able to keep up with the oxygen that was being demanded. You almost suffocated until we finally were able to knock you out with a heavy dosage of anesthesia." She informed him plainly.

Beast Boy frowned, '_at least I woulda died with a smile on my face'_ he thought jokingly to himself.

He looked around the room, noticing that it was just him and her, "Uh, how long have you been in here with me?"

"About an hour and a half."

"How long have I been out?"

"About an hour and a half."

Beast Boy nearly jumped out of his bed, and he would've had it not been for the eye clenching pain his stomach soreness would bring him. Raven, _Raven,_ the Titan empath who supposedly couldn't feel had **willingly** stayed with him. He gave her the biggest grin he could muster.

Raven blushed and put her hood over her head, hoping he wouldn't notice it before then.

'_C'mon, all he did was smile! I can't even see that without blushing?!'_ She thought.

"Well, I was just worried." Raven said, crossing her arms and closing her eyes with annoyance.

He kept his smile, "Yeah, I woulda been worried sick if it were you that were in my position."

This caused her eyes to open with surprise, and unfold her arms.

"Really?" She said with a bit of evident curiosity.

"Of course!" He said in a 'duh' tone, "Nothing would really be ok for me if you got hurt…"

He dropped his grin to display just how serious he was taking his words.

Raven looked on the face of the boy who was slowly, every day, taking a piece of her heart. Piece by piece he had taken it and it had been this way for more than just today or even this week. Truthfully, she had liked the changeling hero for a few months now, even before their scuffle with the Brotherhood of Evil. Sure he could be the most obnoxious, nasty, and idiotic being she'd ever met; but at the same time he could be so damn sweet, innocent, and dare she say, cute. Staring into his bright emerald eyes, she took his hand once more.

As she grasped his hand, the said limb developed a mind of its own as he pulled off a bold move. He raised his fair lady's hand to his lips as he gracefully gave her pale skin a gentle kiss.

Raven blushed madly, stunned by the move that certainly took courage to do. She looked at him with wide eyes as he lowered the hand back to his side where she originally clasped it.

"Beast Boy…" She said softly.

As soon as the name was finished the bay doors slid open to reveal a metallic Titan looking upon the scene. Cyborg stood in front of the open doorway as Raven jerked her hand out of the changeling's. He gave the two a frown since none of them were meeting his gaze. Feeling terrible that he might have just ruined something, he spoke quickly so he can get out of the awkward situation as quickly as possible.

"Glad to see you're up BB." He said, "I know you just woke up and all, but Robin told me to come get you guys as soon as you were conscious. He wants to fill us in on everything that happened."

Beast Boy frowned with disappointment at the ruined moment he had with his empath, he basically told her his feelings! Not only was that **alone **emotionally relieving, her appearing to return that admiration was just absolutely joyous. However, the time for a more proper moment would have to be put on hold.

"Alright, well can you help me up Rae?" He asked.

"Raven." She corrected sternly as she grabbed his gloved hand to raise him up into a sitting position, slightly blushing.

Smiling, he replied, "Thanks."

Cyborg led the way to the living room, leading the two blushing Titans behind him. It was a slightly tense walk.

Before they made their way through the doors, Beast Boy mouthed, "We'll talk." To Raven.

The doors swooshed open to reveal the spacious domain that was lit by its ceiling lights, since the sun was nearing the end of its descent on the horizon. Robin was already waiting for them with his arms folded, standing in front of the couch with Starfire already sitting on it. She threw her friends a concerned look as she petted the sleeping oversized maggot on her lap. Robin watched them make their way over the couch to sit; his cold look as hard as ever.

They all took their seats on the sofa before their leader started.

"As you all know, there was an incident at the Jump City bank this afternoon. The initial response would be to think that Slade was behind the whole attempt, but I'm going to flat out dismiss the idea." He said, looking all of his teammates in the eye. "Starfire and I stayed behind to further investigate the scene, to search for clues or anything that would make it obvious it was him. This is not the work of Slade. The clown faces, and the laughing gas are a strong indicator of who this criminal could be. And I've come to one conclusion."

He turned away and started towards the computer that lied underneath the huge movie theatre sized TV screen they had. The four Titans exchanged quizzical looks with each other, none of them entirely sure who the perpetrator could be.

Robin made a few taps of the keyboard and moved the mouse over to a file that read,

_Wayne Files._

Opening it, he moved the cursor over to the picture of the crazed man that had nearly taken the life of one his teammates. With a heavy sigh, he right clicked the picture and selected, '**project'**.

All the teens, minus Starfire, took a sharp breath and widened their eyes at the picture that had invaded their TV screen.

"No way…" Beast Boy said through his stomach pain.

"Whoa." Raven simply said.

"Oh man…" Cyborg said disbelievingly.

"Um…" Starfire said unsurely, bring her finger to her cheek as if she was missing something.

On the giant screen was a picture of a man in a purple overcoat, with a green vest underneath. To compliment his attire he had the skin of his face painted white, almost similar to chalk, and shaggy green dyed hair. His grin was extended by scars that arched at the ends of his smile. His eyes held pure malice in every sense of the word.

"The Joker." Robin said grimly.

"What in the heck is he doing _here_?!" Cyborg bellowed.

"I'm not sure." Robin replied, furrowing his eyebrows at the murderous sight on the computer.

"Please, this man is not merely some sort of clown?" She asked, clearly confused.

"Uh Star, this guy doesn't exactly tell jokes… " Beast Boy answered.

"He's a madman," Robin said, "with a genius mind and during my time with Batman he was one of our biggest criminals. He's wanted for several dozen counts of theft, robbery, home invasion, arson, attempted murder, and murder. "

The tension that was building in the room was becoming suffocating, as the four Titans sunk into their seats. Just what exactly were they were up against?

"Even after I left Gotham, Bruce still had a hard time tracking him down and throwing him away for good."He continued, "He specializes in firearms, knives, and chemistry."

He turned around to look at his team and saw that they were all having their own sort of stressful reaction. Cyborg looked at the ground while bouncing his leg up and down, Beast Boy ran his head through his hair, Raven pinched the bridge of her nose, and Starfire played with her hair nervously.

Being the leader, Robin had to instill confidence into his team. He knew confidence could certainly go a long way, even when you don't have all the talent in the world. It would be futile to lead a team that wasn't sure of themselves into battle and expect to come out victorious, much less alive.

"We, are the Teen Titans." He said, piercing the grim silence.

Rising to his feet, he said, "We have gone from taking down petty criminals, to downright cancelling the apocalypse. We have overthrown criminal masterminds before. The Joker will be no different. We will hit him and we'll hit him hard. We will do what the great Dark Knight and I couldn't do. I know we can do it as a team, and I know each of you individually can get the job done."

The team had brought their eyes up to their leaders. Robin gave a satisfied smile when his teammates each began to etch small, assuring smiles on their faces. Robin didn't know what he would do without them; they were all he had in this world and he would lay it all on the line for any of them on any day. They were always there for him, just like he'd always be there for them.

"Great. Well I'm going to turn in. Goodnight guys. And don't worry; we'll get the job done just like we always do." And with that, he made his way out of the room, but not before giving his lovely alien girlfriend a sweet kiss that lasted for several seconds.

As he walked down the hall, his confident smile had dropped to a frown as he thought to himself.

'_But I still don't know why he's here…'_

* * *

_Beep. Beep. Beep._

Robin nearly jumped out of bed when the tower alarm sounded throughout his home. He leaned over the side of his bed to get a peek at his clock.

**1:32 AM**

Robin gave a frustrated growl as he threw his blankets off of him and shot out of bed and into his closet to grab a fresh uniform; still in his boxers. He put it on as quickly as it would take to put a glove on, and ran into the Common room. He noticed he was the first one there and felt disappointed that no one else was there. He was quickly satisfied when the rest of the team followed seconds later.

He ran over to the computer, then turned around and barked, "Trouble! A warehouse on the docks!"

* * *

The brisk early morning air was refreshing, and it surrounded everything that basked in it with comfort. The darkness gave shelter to any and all, especially those with even darker intensions. Currently, the vastly comfortable, endless shelter was giving even more cover to horrid acts inside a well kept warehouse that sat on the docks. In the confines of the building were the bodies of innocent workers that were nowhere near aware of the horror that they were in for.

Joker stood on top of a cargo box in the back of the building to admire the whole scene of carnage. He started walked amongst the dozen deceased bodies, humming casually to himself, until he finally knelt down to a worker who had been stabbed in the chest. The disturbed man grabbed the dead man's face by the cheeks.

"Lighten up a little will ya? Smile some!"

After shaking the face of the deceased worker, he walked over a few yards to go down to another man's face in which he cut the same sick smile that resided on his own face. "That's the spirit! Nothing to be serious about right?"

"Well we're nothing to joke about." An all too familiar voice said from the shadows.

Robin walked out from his shadowy curtain, "You'll be headed off to Arkham once we're done here Joker."

With a menacing smile stretching across the madman's face, he replied, "Yeah, I don't think I'd like that. This town's pretty comfy."

"I don't think we care." Robin replied as Starfire and Cyborg busted in through the ceiling, while Beast Boy came in as a bird and Raven transitioned through the steel walls.

Joker's smile grew frighteningly wider.

"Neither do I."

Scores of Joker painted Slade bots fell from the ceiling landing gently on their feet. With no hesitation the metallic group lunged at the teen heroes.

"Titans, go!" Robin commanded as Raven pushed all the first ones to lunge with a blast of energy.

Every Titan jumped in their own direction, forgetting the intimidation that had struck their hearts when they knew who their opponent would be.

Cyborg brought up his cannon as he blasted through a score of Slade bots with ease.

"Booyah!"

His celebration was cut short when several robots jumped on his back. Growling, he jumped backwards, landing on the hard concrete floor on top of the robots that had made a feeble attempt to sneak up on him. He sat up and saw another enemy falling towards him from the ceiling, without a thought he pointed his sonic cannon at the falling enemy, and fired at the exact moment the robots clown face was just above it. He rose to his feet and looked around; he saw more than a few robots that were itching to charge at him. With a smug smile cracking across his face, he raised his hand and motioned for them to charge at him with all they had. The five robots sprinted towards him, and in return Cyborg started his own sprint in the opposite direction towards them, letting his lungs air out a battle cry.

Starfire was firing starbolts furiously at the group she was dealing with. Seeing that the circle that surrounded her was starting to close in, she took flight. Ascending into the air, she started to nose dive with her arms extended into the center of the metallic crowd that was engaging her in combat. With a loud crash, she destroyed the one she flew into and sent the surrounding ones flying. Almost immediately she brought her head up and fired a lime green beam out of both of her eyes, scanning the room at the circle that was once again closing. With the current trouble gone, she readied herself for whatever else would be thrown her way.

Raven brought several barrels into the air as she chanted with glowing white eyes.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!"

She threw her hands in the direction she demanded the barrels to go. The objects did as they were commanded and incapacitated multiple bots. She turned around abruptly as she sensed she was being snuck up on, and before her were a handful more of robots. With the glow in her eyes becoming fiercer, she brought her hand up with her palm open. A black ball then surrounded the robots, then smashed into the size of a soccer ball with an aggressive close of her hand; mashing metal together. Taking her new weapon, she fired the ball with her powers at another incoming robot. Decapitating the weak opponent, she looked over to Beast Boy, concerned of his well being since she hadn't seen him since they made their entrance.

He was in gorilla form, grabbing robots and smashing them on top of each other. With a robot standing in front of him, he gave a mighty roar as he brought both fists up and slammed them down on top of the soulless object. He turned into his human self to search for Raven, but found her already looking for him. He smiled and gave her a wink. She rolled her eyes. He could've sworn that she gave the worlds' slightest blush.

Robin had only one person on his mind, however, and that man was standing atop a box, observing the battle that was ensuing. Robin threw a birdarang at the madman, who had dodged it at the last possible second. Joker looked at the boy wonder with a frown.

"Well it's nice to see you _too_ buddy!"

Robin swung his boa staff which was narrowly dodged as well, "I'm not your buddy. _Why _are you here?!" Robin demanded, pointing his staff at the disturbed genius.

"Sorry kid, don't think I should tell you."

Robin kicked the box that Joker was standing on, but the agile man jumped off of it to land on top of another.

"Say, you wanna see something Wonder Boy?" He said with a devilish grin.

"Not really," Robin replied then charged, his anger blinding him as he swung and missed again.

"Oh, but I think you'll like this." Joker replied, digging in his inside pocket of his overcoat.

Robin readied himself in case he was pulling out a firearm; his staff was out in front of him ready to deflect incoming bullets. Joker pulled his arm out, and it wasn't a firearm he was holding. Robin couldn't believe it. His eyes widened at the sight.

"How-"

"Look at me, my name is Slade and all I care about is stupid apprentices blah blah BLAH!" Joker said with the burnt mask of Slade over his face.

He pulled it off and looked at the boy wonder with a blood curdling malicious grin, "Oh hold on, you'll like this one much more than that one."

Robin was about to charge whenever he reached into his pocket again, certain that this time it would be a weapon. He had no idea how he had gotten Slade's mask in his hands, but he could think about that later.

He screamed as he ran at the monster before him, but his drive was cut short as his stomach fell and his heart shattered. His eyes widened in shock, and he nearly dropped his staff from the feeling.

His eyes quivered from the surprise that was blazing in him.

"No…"

"Alright Wonder Boy, can you guess who I am?" Joker asked teasingly while wearing Batman's mask, as he started to give a bone chilling laugh.

"Do I look familiar?" He asked with evil shining brilliantly in his eyes.

* * *

There is nothing wider than deep space, it holds many things multiplied by infinity; one of the things that it's home to is the home of the Justice League. They weren't an average team; they were a supremely formidable group of prime time heroes that had the likes of Wonder Woman, Superman, and the Batman. The Watchtower was filled with daily promise and an undying aura of good. The beings that held that good within them were currently, however, off doing their own activities or simply just trying to entertain themselves while crime was on break. One hero, however, was off in his domain recovering from battle.

Superman walked down the hall with his flowing red cape following him, until he stopped in front of the door labeled, **Bruce.**

He gave a subtle knock on the door; Bruce sometimes just needed his space and Superman wasn't entirely sure if this was one of those times.

"Come in." A tired voice said.

Clark entered the room and looked at his surroundings. Along the walls were several newspaper articles and clippings. They all either had to do with the Justice League enemies or Batman's own personal foes, so many had the Joker all over them.

'_I hope obsession _isn't _one of the things Robin picked up from old his master.'_ The Krypton hero thought.

Superman then gave his friend a concerned look as he lifted himself into an upright position on his bed, rubbing his head, probably from a massive headache.

"How are you Bruce?"

"Better." Batman replied monotonously.

"Are you sure? Paralysis is a hard thing to shake off, maybe you should-"

"I'm fine Clark." Batman interrupted, meeting his eyes.

Superman wasn't fazed by the rude interruption; he was used to it by now, "OK then…"

Clark Kent turned his head to face an article that was about the Joker, this one in particular was about him robbing a bank and stabbing a woman in her stomach on his way out.

"What do you think he's up to?" Superman asked, keeping his eyes on the crazed picture the article had of the Joker, "I mean, to just pluck your mask off after subduing you instead of just delivering the killing blow? Having you all to himself was something he dreamt of. Doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense."

Batman gave his head a few more rubs before he swung his legs over the bed to now completely face his friend, "Nothing the Joker does makes sense until the whole thing unfolds. Unfortunately, I don't have any ideas as to why he didn't just take me out when he had the chance, but I'll be sure to let you know when I think of one."

Superman gave a confident smile to the Dark Knight, "Well, I know you'll think of something."

Clark gave a nod, and made his way out of the master detective's room.

Batman slumped his posture to rest his elbows on his knees once the man of steel made his exit. Usually Batman would at least have a hint of an idea or a reason as to why criminals did the things they do, but contrary to popular belief, he truly had no clue why the Joker simply just pulled his mask off instead of ending his life. Bruce gave a frustrated sigh. He knew the crazy man had a plan. All that rang through his head were the final words the disturbed man said before laughing and running off into the darkness of an alley way.

"_**See you soon**__."_

'_What's he up to…' _Batman thought.

Suddenly, a thought struck the detective's mind. Maybe he could ask an old apprentice for help to weigh in on the situation. Sure, Robin may not be a genius like himself, but he was definitely a highly intelligent person and he certainly could use a few good theories for what was going on, it certainly would be more than what he had. He reached out for his communicative radio system that connected all the way down to the mansion on earth and moved the channel to the correct one.

"Alfred…"


	4. The Corners of your Mind

This chapter took a long time to write heh but I think I did a good job on it. Warning: This one may make you squirm a bit... Enjoy!

* * *

Robin kept his horrified gaze on the madman that stood before him. Joker was laughing full heartedly at what he thought was a pretty good joke, and finally spoke, "Alright Wonder Boy, as much as I'd love to stay and watch you pummel all my toys, I gotta be on my way! I'll be seeing ya!" He started to put the mask back into his coat, but then a thought struck him, "And here, have this."

Joker tossed the Batman mask at the feet of the masked hero, whose eyes never came off of the monster in front of him. He grabbed smoke screen bombs from his purple coat, and threw them at the ground he stood on.

Robin shielded his eyes with his stronger than steel cape from the smoke that quickly filled the building, and lowered his drape as it just as quickly faded away.

He was gone.

All that was in the room besides the teens were the more than a couple dozen of dead workers and destroyed robots. Seeing that there was nothing he could do about the crazed killer, Robin allowed his gaze to drop to the ground, where the holes of Bruce Wayne's eyes filled the mask would be. He knelt down, picked it up, and slowly rose back to standing position, keeping his eyes on his old master's mask. All the nostalgia and gut wrenching pain was bombarding him like a tsunami after a massive earthquake, and he was feeling both of the natural disasters.

He hadn't noticed his four friends standing behind him, all of them with saddened looks on their faces. None of them were sure of what to say, or if to even say anything at all, until the one person who Robin could never deny spoke up.

"Robin…" The concerned alien princess said, taking an unsure step towards her masked boyfriend.

"Don't worry about it Star… I'll be fine." The Boy wonder replied with a soft voice.

Starfire kept her concerned look on the back of his head before she finally took back her step and folded her hands, throwing her eyes to the ground.

"Raven." Robin said, "Take us home."

Raven looked at her leader with concern, but did as she was told as she surrounded the team in a ball of black, and teleported right into the tower Common room.

Robin took a slow walk over to the dinner table, and rested Batman mask there; he casted a look at the clock that hung in the kitchen.

**2:46 AM**

With the blankest of expressions, he began to make his way over to the hallway doors to his room. Not meeting the eyes of any of his friends, he said, "Goodnight."

As he passed, they all gave him their own look of sympathy, knowing what it's like to have lost someone as dear as a parent figure. After not even a minute of arriving in the tower, he was already gone and off to his sanctuary, and to whatever emotional battle he'd surely participate in.

With him being gone, the other teen heroes looked at each other, not sure of what they should do now. The tension was rising with each second that passed, and it was beginning to become an elephant in the room. As the uncomfortable silence began to build higher and higher, Beast Boy pierced through it as he approached the table where the detective's mask rested.

"Man… This is, really bad…" He said, holding the mask in his grasp, looking through the cut out eyeholes.

"Bad?!" Cyborg questioned, stomping over to his best friend, "Try awful!" He said as he snatched the mask away from the changeling.

"You don't gotta make it worse than it already is dude!"

"Well I'm just stating how the whole situation looks!"

"Well right now we don't need a Captain Obvious!"

"And we don't need you not taking this seriously!"

"**Enough!"** Raven yelled, snatching the mask from their hands with her powers and into her own.

Both boys stopped their bickering, and gave Raven surprised eyes.

"This isn't helping anything." She said, "what _will_ help is us being there for Robin. I'm sure we all know what it's like to lose someone as close as Bruce was to him, and I know that none of us had anyone there for comfort." She made sure to look everyone in the room in the eye, after doing so she continued, "Robin could use all the emotional support he can get, whether he likes to admit or not. Even if he doesn't want it, he'll want to know that all of our doors are open for him."

The men had dropped their faces of surprise and aggravation, and let it fall to a look of understanding and frowns. Raven could feel their embarrassment radiating off of them like she was being sprayed with a water hose.

With empath's wise words running around in Starfire's head, she thought that there was no time to act like the present.

"Raven," she started, "perhaps you should give me the mask so I may see if Robin wishes to hold on to it."

Raven peered into the thoughtful eyes of Starfire, and knew she was the one person Robin couldn't easily brush off or ignore. She was just too sweet in his eyes and would ultimately submit to her every desire and need. He was head over heels for her and all he'd want besides throwing every criminal in jail, is to see her happy. Seeing that maybe the alien princess could do the masked hero some good, she thought that maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea for her to pay him a visit.

"I don't see anything wrong with that." Raven said, handing the mask to the alien princess.

With a nod, Starfire floated out of the room and down the dimly lit corridor.

Raven returned her sight to the changeling and metal man that were still standing in their previous position.

"It's been a long night. We should get some rest."

Cyborg couldn't have agreed anymore, as the word 'rest' swept him off his feet and carried him into his room that was similar to a lab.

Beast Boy walked up to the empath smiling nervously, "Mind if I walk you?"

"Not at all." She replied with a soft smile.

They began their walk in uncomfortable silence down the hall and didn't go very long before Beast Boy disrupted the tension, "How do you do that Rae?"

Raven surrendered a curious look, ignoring what he just called her, "Do what?"

"Make everyone get a hold of themselves and not kill each other."

"People just need to be reminded sometimes of the real matter at hand, that's all."

"Yeah, well, I thought you were great back there in calming everyone."

Raven gave a faint blush and looked away from the green boy and muttered, "Thanks."

They made a turn to their right to enter the corridor that held both of their rooms; stopping in front of Raven's door, since hers was on the way to Beast Boys.

Raven opened the door and entered the room, but turned around to face the smiling changeling. At even height, she looked deep into his emerald eyes, as if they were _demanding_ the attention of her own violet orbs. She felt as if she needed to say something, anything just to let him know that she didn't want this moment to end or for him to leave. She opened her mouth to speak, but found that her voice box was vacant of any words. Casting her eyes to the ground, she felt a bit embarrassed for how shy and stupid she was acting; this was different from her usual confident heir.

Beast Boy took notice of how hesitant the girl was, and decided that he should display another performance of boldness, even if it would be just a rerun. Just to let her know that it's ok to feel the emotional turmoil that love would bring into people, since it'd be no different for her, even if she was half demon.

He reached out for both of her hands and held them in between his and her body, looking straight through her eyes to see the sweet girl that lied beneath the shell she had to display for everyone's safety, before he spoke, "Don't worry, we'll do all the talking we need to tomorrow." He said and raised the hand he hadn't kissed, and brought it up to his lips to deliver a soft, nerve racking blow of affection.

Bringing her hand down, he released her hand and bid her goodnight, and made his way to his room.

Raven never took her eyes off the boy who had, completely now, won her heart, and finally let a smile wiggle its way onto her face as he entered his own room. She slid the door shut and looked around her dark realm, and thought about how terrible the ornaments of her room were for powerfully dark nights like the one that was thriving at the moment.

'_As I've said before, maybe I should consider redecorating…'_ She thought.

Brushing her thought to the side, she unclipped her clasp, and draped her cloak over a desk. She crawled into her well made bed, and allowed the replays of all recent events in her head. Beast Boy nearly dying, the changeling confessing his feelings for her, realizing the enemy they were against, watching Robin's heartbreak, and the promise tomorrow held.

The reruns of the show the day before and the morning of today took control of her mind, until she finally had no conscious hold of it and drifted into sleep.

Nightmares would be pleasant dreams compared to what slumber had in store for her.

* * *

(Same time as previous scene)

"Robin?" Starfire called, knocking on her love's bedroom door.

She waited for nearly a whole minute, but the answer that was given to her question was silence. Starfire hung her head, not being able to grasp the thought of her fearless boyfriend wallowing in heartbreak. With a reluctant sigh, she turned around to begin her walk to her room.

"Starfire?"

The alien princess turned around with hope in her eyes, to find Robin standing at his door with a vulnerable look on his face; she had never seen him with that type of expression before. She noticed that he had already changed into more comfortable clothing, wearing a regular white T shirt with black basketball shorts. He always looked so different when he wasn't walking around all hours of the day in his uniform.

"Did you need something?" He asked.

Suddenly remembering why she was there, she lifted the mask she held in her hand up so the Boy Wonder could see it.

"I was merely wondering if you wish to hold on to this; since it means so much to you…" She said with a sad smile.

Robin took one glance at it and immediately shook his head. "No thanks, Star."

Starfire noticed that he still had the vulnerable look on his face, and couldn't take it anymore.

"Robin, everyone has gone off to their rooms to sleep. You do not have to seclude yourself to carry your pain on your own. You can talk to me of your troubles." She said, wrapping her arms around his neck to give him a gentle hug.

Hearing her soft sobs and feeling the tears stream down her face, Robin threw his arms around his beautiful girlfriend, forgetting the world in the process. Nothing could possibly be more important in the universe than the embrace they were sharing. An embrace of deep pain and friendship that it seemed only those two could create. However, no matter how sweet the embrace or any other would be, his pain would remain inside him. The alien princess would travel to the ends of the earth to comfort him, even if it was for the death of his father, but she could not know of the destruction that was raging on inside of him.

It would swell up in him one day, along with everything else that's locked tightly in his soul, tucked in a corner he would never visit, just build on. One would reasonably guess that, eventually, everything will find its way out; a past occurrence of this was Red X. No matter what though, he found it impossible to share the weight of the world with someone he so deeply cared for. She did not deserve to help carry such a back breaking burden, and he wouldn't allow her to have any part of it. At least not until he's hung the cape up and put the mask in a desk that he'd open up to observe in nostalgia, to remember the good old days.

He finally spoke after standing in a comfortable silence for a couple of minutes, "I know Star, I know." He said, tightening the embrace.

She sniffled before pulling her head out of the crook of his shoulder and spoke with tears shining in her eyes, "Then why will you not let me assist you?

The answer was quite simple; it was the same answer he told not only the people who were concerned about him, but also what he told himself. An answer that he had been giving since the death of his parents and one of which he will continue to give until it is no longer necessary. With a sad, yet comfortable smile, he answered.

"Because, I'll be ok."

* * *

Meanwhile, a malicious man stood atop Titans tower, admiring the dark beauty that the wide ocean provided.

The natural world around him wasn't something that typically made the Joker feel warm and fuzzy inside. Usually bright lights of explosions and the sweet screams of people brought his heart pleasure, but there were certain natural things that would catch his eye. There were, however, many things that Mother Nature could do for him; like provide a tree to hang someone on, and even the vast deep blue of the ocean could be used for helpful things like hiding a body after tying it to cinderblocks.

Joker licked his lips and pulled out a watch from his overcoat. He gave a smug smile.

**3:48 AM**

"The show should be underway." He said with a carefree grin.

He took one last look at the ocean, stuffed the watch back in his coat pocket, and turned to walk through the door leading into the tower corridors.

* * *

Raven all of sudden felt very… uncomfortable; like her bedspread had been replaced with pebbles and dirt. She was too sleepy, however, to try and make an effort at changing anything so she tried her best to ignore it and enjoyed the dry breeze.

Wait…

Raven opened her eyes abruptly to find herself lying on a desert plain with the sun beating down on her. There appeared to be nothing around except seven dark figures standing about a hundred yards away.

'_Where am I?' Am I dreaming?' _She thought, '_No, my mind wouldn't be actively thinking like it is now. How did I get here then?'_

She took one more sweep around the region with her eyes, confirming that the she was surrounded by emptiness; nothing in sight, and even an empty blue sky. Once again looking at the seven figures, she rose to her feet, and took off in flight towards the mysterious objects. As she got closer, she realized that they were all different colored.

She touched down in front of the group and took a sharp breath at what she saw.

Her emotions.

Every single one standing there, with fear and sadness on all of their faces; even Happy and Anger wore the look.

Raven was enraged.

Never before had she gone into her own mind during sleep; slumber was the time for her head to rest besides meditation.

'_What the hell am I doing in Nevermore?!'_

"Alright, I want _one_ of you to tell me what's going on, NOW!" She yelled with a vein throbbing in her head.

None bothered to answer. They kept their same, fear stricken face instead, and stared at the nothingness that was behind her.

Starting to slowly be alarmed, she stomped over to her brown cloaked self, "Wisdom, what's going on?" She said in a hushed, serious tone.

"We tried so hard…" She replied quietly, still looking off into the distance.

"What?"

"We all tried Raven… so hard… all of us…"

"Wisdom _what_ are you talking about?!" She said with panic starting to rise in her voice.

Wisdom finally brought her eyes to Raven's, and muttered, "We're sorry…"

"What are you sorry f-"

Her voice was cutoff when she noticed the baby blue sky darken to a blood red shade. Everything had become darker, as if the sun had somehow jumped right into a sunset. She looked behind her to the source of the light, and felt her soul be crushed at the sight.

Jump City. It was torn apart, and laid to waste; as if an atom bomb had set off right in the center of it. She turned around quickly to ask her emotions again what was going on, but found that she was alone. With panic in her eyes, she rotated her head to face the city once more, looking upon the destruction that was once her home. She was about to take flight when she heard the epitome of evil. His evil laugh filled the air and shook everything that had foundation on the ground. The evil laughter had wrapped a strangle hold on her throat as she looked on in horror. Raven fell to her knees, not caring to wipe the tears that were falling freely from her eyes. Him. It was Him.

"This isn't possible…" Raven said as she observed Trigon fire lasers from his eyes and stomp on the helpless pedestrians that were running everywhere.

There wasn't any place in particular to run to but that didn't seem to register in their petrified minds. Their head splitting horror had taken control of their legs to move them anywhere but where they were currently.

Trigon turned his head towards his daughter, and began to make his way over to her. Raven's hands lit up in black aura, preparing to die before she withstood anymore of this insanity. However, as she took a closer look, Trigon wasn't coming for her; he was chasing someone that was coming in her direction. As she waited, the figure closed the distance, and the face became clearer and clearer.

It was Beast Boy.

"No! Beast Boy!" Raven yelled, reaching her hand out for him.

"Raven! Get out of here! Run!" Beast Boy yelled.

He ran a few more paces before demons with flesh of fire rose from the concrete ground, intercepting him before he could run any further.

"Stop! Let him go!" She screamed.

"They do not listen to you anymore, child."

Raven looked up to see Trigon looking down on her with a smug smile. His flowing white hair going just to his shoulders, and his eyes holding nothing but pleasure at the despair that was flowing from the changeling.

"Please father! Please don't hurt him!" Raven begged, she'd never felt so desperate before.

Trigon gave an amused look at her daughter, then casted his eyes on the green boy who was still being held in place by his minions; he had to restrain himself from laughing at the hero's futile attempt to break free of the demons.

"I see…" Trigon said with narrowed eyes, "You have my daughter's heart. There is a special place for you, somewhere else…"

Beast Boy began to scream in pure terror as the demons started to drag him down beneath the ground, taking him to whatever depth of hell awaited him.

"Raven!" He screamed with all his might as his head disappeared, leaving only his hand above the ground.

Raven dove for the hand, praying that she'd catch a finger, a piece of his glove, _something_.

Instead her face met dirt, and her hand scooped up nothing but ash.

She eyed the ash that was in her hands, and cursed the world. It was apparent she was not destined to be happy, and that no matter what good deed she'd do, there'd be a roadblock in her life to send her back where she came from.

She rose to sit on her knees, and began to weep. With a cry of anguish, she brought her fists up and slammed them on the ground, over and over again, until her hands would give out from being broken, just like her whole being.

Trigon just stood over her, smiling in triumph.

* * *

Joker stood in the empath's room flinching at every scream she'd stab through the air. He couldn't help but laugh hysterically whenever she started sending her fists into her bed repeatedly without stopping. The madman walked over to her bed to observe the look of terror and despair in the girl's eyes, and tried to hold in his laugh but failed miserably as he let out another rip.

He turned to make his way out of the room and said, "Let's see what else is on."

Entering the hallway, he walked down to a door that was about fifty feet from the empath's, written on the door was: **Beast Boy**

He opened the door, and found the young boy with his pupils dilated almost frighteningly. His eyes were so wide that they almost connected with his hairline. The changeling had a death grip on his blankets as he muttered to himself repeatedly.

He was begging someone to not kill his friends.

* * *

The smell of prey was completely filling out the air, the beast noticed as he raised his snout to get a better scent. He could smell it, the sweat of fear and he could also hear the heart pounding terror that resided in his food. The scent was so strong that he was starting to slobber from the unreasonably good odor. The beast circled around its prey in the bushes, having its food never leave its sight.

It had been so long since it'd been on an actual hunt, too long if you'd ask. There was nothing like it, being the strong and crushing the weak and disposing of them via making them food. The feeling of boasting your ferocious canines and feral aggression by ripping apart whatever unfortunate animal would walk right into his grasp was like no other. It was so close now, and he could taste it on the tip of his tongue.

'_Oh my god what am I doing! Please! Don't let me do this!'_ Beast Boy thought to himself, demanding that his limbs move in another direction, but nothing would cooperate.

The jungle he was residing in was the perfect place to hide within. He watched, undetected, while his food stood hesitantly in an opening patch of grass. It could feel the dirt clinging to its paws, and its eyes were burning through what would be a satisfying dinner. Its prey could hear him, but that just made the mouth watering smell of fear even stronger. He crawled over to a thick shrub, and anticipated for several seconds. Any second then it would be right...

Now.

The beast pounced on the pack leader of the group of prey, figuring that without him the others would be easy for the taking. He tore into its red shirt with his knife like claws, and sunk his teeth into its moist skin; licking the fear drenched sweat as he bit harder. Its prey screamed for mercy, and pleaded for someone with the name of 'Beast Boy' to stop what he was doing. Hearing him choke on his own blood beginning to flow into his lungs only ignited the monster more. With one final swipe, he swung his claws along the masked face of the prey, taking away more than just the identity concealing object.

Finally the prey had given up, and let the life flow out of him as the beast's teeth jerked inside of its throat, where a good sized portion of the blood was.

'_I'm so sorry Robin…' _Beast Boy helplessly thought, sobbing to his soul crushing pain, '_I don't wanna do this! I'm begging you leave everyone else alone!'_

Sensing that the feasting was no more fun, the beast turned his head to face the three followers of the pack leader. He had been right; they were helpless without their pack leader, and were certainly, his for the taking.

The orange girl gave her hands a lime green glow, and pointed them at the beast to fire strange green lights. The beast saw through this, and jumped back into the jungle where he would have _endless _places to drop a surprise attack. The orange girl began to fire aimlessly into the tropical trees and plants, hoping that she'd hit something.

'_C'mon Star, kill me! Please kill me!'_ Beast Boy begged.

The beast immediately went for high ground, and climbed along a thick tree with many branches that were strong enough to hold his weight. He watched as the girl fired off recklessly into the forest that was beneath him. He merely waited until she was finished.

The girl finally waived the glow from her hands and eyes, and lowered her arms. She gave her metallic friend a saddened look.

This was the small window the beast needed.

With a blood curdling roar, the monster jumped from the branch and landed on top of the girl who had let her guard down. He grinned at the sound of her bones crushing from him landing on her, and dug his claws into the stomach of the strange prey. Her scream was music to his ears as he hung his tongue from his mouth, and savored every ounce of blood that soaked his hands.

After admiring the new color to its hands, the beast looked up and saw that the life was gone from the girl's eyes. That left only two…

The beast turned swiftly to face the blue metallic man, who was shielding something behind him; it appeared to be a darker shade of blue. That didn't matter at the moment, all that mattered was the man that stood before him. However, there was something different about him… He didn't smell of flesh and blood.

It frowned at this, but noticed a different smell from behind him. It was coming from whatever he was shielding, and whatever it was, it was absolutely intoxicating. The smell of pure fear and blood, it was mind blowing. He must have it!

The beast took a harsh pivot and performed juke moves to his left and right, to keep the metal man guessing on what side he'd strike from. Within seconds, the monster was inches before the pile of scrap, looking right into his petrified eyes. With a hellacious roar he swung his hand at the temple of the victim, sending his head almost a dozen yards off to the side.

The animal gave the head one final look, seeing that the face still had the same fear stricken look. Growling, he brought his gaze to the pale empath that was in front of him.

She was beautiful; her grey skin reflecting the sun perfectly with horrified violet orbs for eyes. There was some sort of hood hiding her face in darkness, but it did not hide the terror on her face.

'_No…'_

The beast took a step towards her, while she took one back.

'_Please don't…'_

Steps were taken and subtracted again.

'_Raven, RUN!'_

The beast gave a roar from hell, sending the pale beauty running into the jungle.

Finally, something that runs!

The feral animal jumped into the trees again, going from tree to tree, not bothering to look for the fleeing prey since he could smell her despair from a mile away. Brushing through the leaves and branches, she was now just below him.

With a fierce spring, he jumped from the branch, correctly calculating the trajectory of his jump and landed right on the back of the blue cloaked figure, stabbing his claws with her back. She screamed in mind bending pain, but all that did was send the birds around flying away, and excite the beast beyond words. There was just something about this one, something that made him want to forget about every other animal that lived in this comfortable place, there was just _something_ about her that made him absolutely out of his already primitive mind! He put his hand on her side, and roughly turned her around so he could see her face. As she harshly rolled to her back, her hood fell, revealing the chaos that was ensuing in her heart. Why did this feel so good, compared to the other prey?

With tears shining in her eyes and betrayal reflecting from her face, she whispered hoarsely, "But… I love you…"

The beast had had enough, the smell was overwhelming and it was making him dizzy, he had to have her!

With a triumphant roar, he raised his claws in the air, and threw them down into the abdomen of what was, his love.

* * *

Joker smiled maliciously as he watched the show that was going on in the changeling's room.

"No!" He screamed, his pain suffocating his throat as he tore apart his bed with claws, "No! Please! Raven! I'm sorry!"

The madman was starting to enjoy himself, but then remembered that there were other performances going on right now, and he didn't want to miss any of them.

He turned around, and exited the room to make his way down the hall. The Joker carelessly whistled a tune to himself as he made a left after reaching the turn, and stopped at the first door that appeared on his left.

**Cyborg**

The green haired villain walked in, and caught the half metal man speaking to himself, or perhaps someone that wasn't in the room.

He reached over for a chair that was underneath a desk, and turned it around to where the back of the chair was facing him. Taking a seat and resting his arms on the back of the furniture, he watched and enjoyed the show.

* * *

"Uh, Dad?" Victor Stone asked.

"Yes son?" Silas Stone replied.

"Are you sure this is safe?"

"Son, you have nothing to worry about. We've got the best scientists around in this lab, we've tested this hundreds of times, and your mother is down there with you if anything goes wrong."

Victor Stone looked at his father with an unsure look, then turned around to face his mother, who was smiling comfortingly.

Vic smiled back, but dropped the grin as he glanced around the lab where the experiment would take place.

The walls were snow white, and so was the white marble floor. On the ceiling were speakers where Vic heard his father from, as the said man was in another room along with other scientists, watching on from the camera that was glued up in the top back corner of the room. There used to be several tables, Bunsen burners, flasks, tubes, and other tools for chemicals, but those things were moved out of the room, in case they were destroyed during the experiment. Now all it was was a white room with the only decorations being the countertops and cabinets that rested on the wall, just above the counters. The _real _change that caught the teen's attention, however, wasn't the emptiness of the room or eeriness of the situation. No, it was the twelve by fifteen shaped square that was constructed of steel poles, at the very front of the room.

It wasn't the first time that Vic had helped his parents out at the S.T.A.R. Lab with an experiment, but this was something that definitely was more dangerous than anything he's ever helped with. Having his father pushing him into testing serums and helping inject animals was one thing, but dimensional traveling? To Vic, that sounded like something that God intended for man to stay _out _of.

"Are you ready baby?" A soft voice asked from behind him.

Vic turned around to face his mother, who was again giving him a comforting smile. She was a beautiful woman; her chocolate brown skin complimented her deep brown eyes and white lab coat, along with her straightened, smooth hair. Her red lipstick was standing out on her brown face, which also complimented her beautiful face.

"Yeah mom," Vic said, "let's do it."

Elinore gave an assuring nod to her son, before speaking into a walkie talkie that was clipped onto the collar of her coat.

"He's ready Si." She said.

She folded her arms over her chest as the two waited for about half a minute before the electricity started to flow into the giant square that stood at the front of the room. Vic's stomach began to churn as the square that now displayed a black abyss, with a light blue foggy swirl in the middle of it.

Vic grimaced. He was still unsure of what he was about to do, but he couldn't bare not giving his mother this moment of glory should this whole thing work. With a reluctant sigh, he started his walk towards the portal that led him to who knows where.

Suddenly, he heard it.

It was similar to a type of growl, but it stopped after a few seconds. Vic was trying to comprehend what he had heard, he was sure it wasn't a noise that wasn't coming from the machine itself, and the thought of that frightened him.

"Everything ok baby?" his mother asked.

_ROAR_

It was unlike any animal that had ever inhabited the earth. The ear piercing roar that came from the portal shocked everyone and put their feet in quicksand, until a black tentacle came from the blue swirls.

Vic watched the tentacle as it at first waved around aimlessly, hitting the floor, then the countertop, till it appeared to have his mother in sight.

"Mom!" Vic yelled, but was discarded with a swing from another black tentacle.

Vic hit his back against the wall, and quickly opened his eyes to watch his mother become entangled in the black tentacles. Whatever it was, it had completely wrapped Elinore's limbs up.

Her face was one of pure shock and horror, as she found her mobility was ceased by the bone crushing strength of the monster's squeeze. She screamed in pain as the hold became unbearable, and the pressure on her limbs being pulled on was becoming too much.

Vic watched disbelievingly as he witness her mother, limb by limb, be pulled apart. She let out a scream that would wake up an entire town up from slumber, as her right leg came off first, followed by both arms being pulled off at the same time, dropping the woman from her suspension in air. She was deathly silent when she hit the floor.

"Son! Get out of there!" His father's voice demanded over the speakers.

Vic snapped out of his horrified trance, and took off in a sprint towards the door. It was so close; the knob was just an inch out of his reach until he felt himself being pulled back.

"No!" He screamed, as he watched black tentacles wrap around his legs and arms.

He tried desperately to shake the monsters grip, but it was futile. Nothing he did even seemed to phase the abomination, or even weaken it.

Then the pain came.

His arms began to be pulled in positions they were never meant to perform. His right arm was pulled out of socket place and around his neck, while the other, (also pulled out of place) had snapped horribly just above the elbow, showing a peak of his bone. Both of his legs were smashed, as the beast raised him like a rag doll and brought him back down viciously on the ground with his legs out. He screamed endlessly, pleading to God for this to end. It was truly unbearable.

Vic begged for death; that was much more desirable than being saved at this point. He just needed to get away from this otherworldly pain he was being put through right now. Death would be the only thing that would comfort him at the moment, he couldn't live past an event like this, and he couldn't live in a world without his beloved mother. He wondered if maybe this is what Hell felt like, as he looked at the odd ways his limbs had been twisted.

Suddenly, he noticed the blue swirl become smaller with each passing second. The monster appeared to have noticed as well, as it was pulling back into the abyss. The portal was beginning to close, but that fact hadn't influenced how tightly the monster gripped Vic. With his face now inches in front of the portal that was increasingly shrinking, he turned his face to the side, and let his temple feel the fire of a thousand suns as his skin made contact with the portal surface. Along with his temple, his torso was up against the portal also, destroying the fabric of his shirt and degrading his skin.

The monster put up quite an effort to get the young man through the dimensional doorway, but he simply was just too large and wouldn't fit into the snug hole. This just served as more torture, until the creature finally let him go, fleeing back into the abyss with the portal finally closing.

With nothing gripping him now, he fell helplessly to the ground, not feeling the pain that erupted through his body. His mind was floating in and out of consciousness from the shock, and mostly the pain he had just gone through. His eyes were fluttering as he saw four men in white lab coats enter the room, each one with a frantic look on their faces. Two went over to Vic's mother, while the other began to vomit from the atrocious scene. The other one, his father, sprinted over to him, and grabbed his face and yelled at it.

Vic could see that his father was screaming at him, but he simply couldn't register any noise coming from his mouth. The look in his eyes held true horror, as the chocolate skinned man desperately tried to gain his only son's attention. Vic would have none of it though, as he saw nothing, except the black void of death.

It had only felt like seconds before Vic could consciously think again, and the fact that he could do that surprised him. He opened his eyes, and noticed that through his left one, everything was seen in red.

Vic wondered what that could've meant, then looked around the room he was in. It was a room similar to that of a hospital's, and it had snow white walls with a countertop to the side that had a sink built in with a cabinet above it. That was oddly familiar…

'_Man, where am I?'_ He thought.

"S-son?" a hesitant voice asked.

Vic looked at the door of the room and saw the grey haired man that was his father. He had changed from his lab coat into a regular formal suit with a red striped tie; Vic immediately cringed. Events of everything that took place began to bombard his mind, and through the fog of uncertainty, he was completely flabbergasted at one thing…

"Dad… How am I alive?" Vic asked, smothering tears.

"Son…" Silas started, walking over to his son's hospital bed, "words can't explain, so let me show you…"

Silas reached over to a countertop and picked up a mirror, and showed his son all of his nightmares combined into one.

Vic saw a man, with half of a chocolate brown face, combined with a metal, blue side and a red cybernetic eye.

The boy began to panic, "No…" He said, as he quickly pulled his blanket off of his body, and he suddenly wished he hadn't.

His whole body was composed of metal, his horribly disfigured legs and arms, replaced with advanced prosthetics, and even his viciously burnt torso was replaced.

A thousand thoughts started to race in Vic's young, intelligent mind. Many of them being that he was a monster, no one would ever accept him, he'd never find someone to love, and finally, it was his _father's _fault.

"Victor, I-"

"Just shut up, old man." Vic broke in quietly, "all my life you've _used _me, forced me to be what you wanted me to be. And all my life I _fought _you. But you won didn't you?"

Vic started to clutch the bedspread with his new metallic hands tightly as he started to yell.

"Guess what? I'm _exactly_ what you want now! I _hate_ you old man! _**I hate you!"**_

Tears began to sprint down Vic's one good eye, as he lost control of his volume.

"Damn it! Why didn't you let me just die?! _**Why couldn't you let me die?!"**_

* * *

Joker walked out of the lab like room and looked to his left at the last two doors that remained; he could still hear Cyborg's wild sobs.

"Three down, two to go." He said, keeping his devilish grin.

He put his hands in the pockets of his purple pants, and made his way over to the nearest room.

**Starfire**

He opened the door, and caught the girl in the middle of her nightmare.

"Robin! Stop!" She pleaded.

* * *

Starfire watched helplessly as Robin sent a wave of Slade bots at the tower, pointing directly at the orange teen and her friends. Standing amongst the army in his Red X costume, he smiled smugly as he put his mask back on, and stared at the group. A man dressed in black with metal armor came to the side of the masked villain, and whispered something into Robin's ear.

Robin nodded eagerly at his master, Slade, and charged at his old friends while the Slade army focused their attack on the tower.

Cyborg held his sonic cannon up and yelled, "You have this coming!"

He fired at his old leader, but the masked villain dodged it easily and threw a X on the center of the metal man's chest, sending electrical shocks throughout his body, dropping him to the ground.

Now standing about a foot from the remaining three, Red X raised both of his hands at Raven and Beast Boy, shooting giant X's at the two, sending them flying to the ground and strapping them where they laid.

Red X then turned towards the alien princess, and began to walk slowly to her.

With the tears running from her lime green eyes, she warned, "Stop right there Robin! Please! Stop this!"

Red X never stopped his walk, until he was standing almost on the toes of the Tameranian. They stood in an odd silence for about thirty seconds, before the villain grabbed Starfire's hands, and held them chest high.

The green light faded from her eyes, and her guard had dropped immediately at the thought that she had gotten to her boyfriend's mind finally.

She gave a sad smile, ignoring the destruction that was happening in the tower behind her, and looked into the masked eyes before her.

"It's Red X."

With those words, Red X fired his signature X's, quickly wrapping his hands around her wrists before doing so.

She was sent backwards, colliding with the hard ground, strapped to the ground from her wrists. Heartbroken that she was tricked, she tried with her alien strength to break free of the trap, but found that no matter how hard she struggled, it wasn't enough.

Red X looked down on her, then turned around to slowly walk over to where Cyborg was laying, who still dazed.

The masked villain stood over his old metallic friend, and removed his mask so they could see the face of the one who took his life.

Cyborg began to rustle from unconsciousness, "Robin… No…"

He wasn't given a chance to finish the statement, as Robin raised his hand and fired a deadly X at the face of the hero.

Starfire gasped, and screamed, "_Robin! Why?!"_

He didn't acknowledge the alien princess, instead he made his way over to his two other friends, and ended their lives just as quickly.

With one more job to do, he turned his head to face the Tameranian beauty, and gave a smug smile.

Starfire shook from her sobbing, as she waited for the end.

* * *

The green haired madman was giggling at how hard the girl was shaking from her nightmare, she was truly terrified!

As humorous as he found her to be, he left the room. He wanted to catch the Wonder Boy in a petrified state.

"That'd be a good joke. The fearless leader, slits his wrists from his own demons." Joker said to himself, laughing down the hall.

He stopped in front of Robin's door, and heard the flapping of what almost sounded like wings.

Joker turned around, and gave a frustrated groan, "Aw, what are you _doing_ here?!"

He was answered with a black fist, coordinated for between his eyes.

* * *

Robin watched helplessly in the alleyway as Joker held the upper hand against him and his master. He struggled tremendously against the pounds of duct tape that was strapping him down from shoulder to toe on the cold concrete floor. His hands were taped to the ground instead of his side, so he was unable to make a slick move to retrieve a birdarang.

The only thing that wasn't taped was his head, Joker had left that unrestrained so he could watch the demise of Bruce Wayne. He observed hopelessly as Joker held a sharp knife in the air, ready to bring it down on the Batman, who was on his knees.

With a mighty laugh, Joker started to thrust his knife down, aiming for the top of the master detective's head.

"_**No!"**_ Robin screamed.

As soon as the word left his throat, the Dark Knight dove to his right, letting the Joker fall directly to the ground with a yelp. Batman quickly rolled over on to the back of the madman, and tied his hands together with rope, to immobilize the disturbed man.

He gave the knot a hard tug, and walked over to the tied up hero, ignoring the cracking sound that came from the Joker's wrist and his scream.

"Bruce, you'r-"

"Wake up Robin." Batman cut in plainly.

"W-what?" What are you-"

"Wake. Up." Batman said, before giving his old friend a hard slap in the face.

With a red hand print on his face, Robin barked, "_What the hell was that f_-" the masked hero didn't finish his sentence; he noticed his surroundings were… different…

Was this his room?

He could've sworn that he was just helping Bruce handle the Joker in an alley way…

Seeing that his old master was still looking at him with blank eyes, Robin started calmly, "Bruce? I thought you were… But I…_What's_ going on?!" He finally yelled.

"It's nice to see you too. No, I'm alright. And that over there is what's going on." Batman answered monotonously, pointing to the door of Robin's room.

Robin looked over to the door and saw a purple dressed man with green hair, tied up with duct tape over his mouth. He lay unconscious with rope tied around his hands and ankles, and a huge bruise on his forehead.

Robin narrowed his eyes.

"Joker."

* * *

Alright, before anyone says anything about that Cyborg scene, no I don't know how exactly he gets disfigured. However, I do know that in the comics he does to try travel dimensionally for his parents at the S.T.A.R. labs and it was because of a monster but that's all I know. I thought it was pretty slick to add what he actually said in the comics though when he found his new body hehe sorry if the last two sucked, I was kind of stuck on them. Well that's the fic! Thanks for reading! Review, favorite, and follow!


	5. The Interrogation

Alright so here ya go! Chapter four! I hope you all liked the last chapter heh it was cool to have my mind expand like that. Enjoy!

* * *

l"Bruce, why are you here?" Robin asked.

"I'll explain later." He replied monotonously, "Your friends are in trouble. You aren't the only one who's having bad nightmares; your whole team is going through their own personal Hell." He explained quickly, hoping his old apprentice would get the message.

Robin widened his eyes and began to vividly remember what he was experiencing, then compared it to what everyone else's worst demons could be.

He sprang out of bed and sprinted for the door, but stopped when he noticed he wasn't being followed. Robin threw his old master a look, as if demanding a reason why he wasn't coming.

"I'll stay here with him." Batman said, shooting a look at the Joker, "Don't want him slipping through our fingers. He has a tendency to do that."

Robin quickly nodded, then continued his sprint to the closest room, which was Starfire's. He opened the door and found the alien princess soaking her bed in tears, as her lit up eyes and hands were burning the mattress from their staggering heat.

He jumped onto the bed, gripped his hands onto her shoulders, and frantically started to shake his alien girlfriend.

"Star! Wake up!" He yelled with wide eyes, desperately trying to save her from whatever she was seeing.

The girl's sobbed quieted, as the light in her eyes began to fade.

She spoke quietly, "R-Robin?"

"Yes Star, it's me." He said, heavily relieved.

She threw her arms around him, pulling him onto her body while she continued to lie down.

"Oh Robin, I had the most frightening nightmare!" She said through sobs into the crook of his shoulder.

Trying to ignore the blush on his face, he put his hands on the bed and pushed himself up from her and spoke, "I know, and now it's ok. I need you to get Cyborg and wake him up right _now."_

Starfire could hear the stress in his voice, and sensed that something was wrong. With a nod, she floated from her bed, still in uniform from when she spoke to him earlier, and took off for the metal man's room.

Robin exited alongside her, and passed Cyborg's room as she opened the door to wake him; he could hear his friend crying wildly. Narrowing his eyes in frustration, he sprinted towards Beast Boy's room, and busted through the door to find the boy in a fetal position, quietly begging someone to stop doing something. The masked hero ran over to his bawling green friend and grabbed him by the head.

"Beast Boy! Wake up! It's just a bad dream! _Wake up_!" Robin yelled into the raw face of the changeling.

Beast Boy ceased bawling, and opened his eyes to look at his leader's. The confusion in his eyes was obvious, along with the redness from his crying.

"Robin? Is that really you? You're ok?"

"Yeah Beast Boy," Robin said with a comforted sigh, "it's me. I'm fine but listen, I think Raven's in trouble. You sho-"

Robin wasn't given a chance to finish, for the green hero jumped out of bed after hearing _her_ name mixed with the word trouble. Beast Boy took off, running out the door in a tee shirt and boxers, down the hall to his beloved's room.

Sliding to a stop, he banged his fists on the door, "_Raven!"_ He screamed.

Not wanting to wait for an answer, he morphed into a green gorilla and effortlessly pushed the door down. He transformed into his human form before entering the room, and was greeted with the unmistakable smell of salt. Beast Boy looked over at the round bed and spotted the empath lying in the center of it with her eyes clenched shut, crying profoundly.

"Raven!" He yelled.

The changeling ran straight to the bed and sat on his knees beside her, grabbing her shoulders and shaking them crazily.

"Wake up Rae! Please wake up!" He begged.

Raven suddenly gasped and shot open her eyes, revealing how raw her face and eyes were from the crying she had been doing.

She was breathing heavily and gave a frantic scan around her room, until her eyes fell on the changeling's own scared pair. Without a moment's thought, she threw her arms around him and hugged the boy furiously. Though he didn't know what she saw, what he had witnessed was enough for him, and he returned the tightness of the hug.

"It's ok," he whispered in her ear, "I'm right here…"

"And don't you ever leave…" She whispered back through her silent tears.

He hugged her even tighter and replied, "I wouldn't dream of it."

They sat there on that bed, holding each other for only a few minutes, but they could've done it for hours.

Robin opened the door to the room, and widened his eyes at the sight that was before him. The team _empath _was being held by the team jester. The night truly couldn't get more eventful. After a couple seconds, he realized that they hadn't heard him make his entrance into the domain. Robin's face fell slightly. He knew he had to ruin the moment, and it pained him to do so.

Robin cleared his throat to get their attention, which he obtained, and spoke, "Sorry guys but uh… I need to talk to all of you about something. I know you just went through some pretty rough stuff but, come to the Common room as soon as possible."

He wasted no time in bailing out of the room after he finished his news, hoping he wouldn't be caught in a hateful gaze from either of the two heroes.

Raven and Beast Boy kept their eyes on the door where their leader had stood, both disappointed at their happiness being cut down. They both could only speculate as to why their leader had needed them, and now that Raven thought of it, how did Beast Boy know she was having horrific visions? What could be going on?

Beast Boy held his daydreaming until the girl in his arms began to move and stand. "Whoa Rae, are you sure you're ok to go out there?"

Raven rose to her feet and put a hand on her face, trying not to irritate it anymore since the tears had already done plenty of that. "Yes, I'm fine."

The empath looked over at the clock on her nightstand with a curious gaze.

**5:01 AM**

Raven grimaced. "Besides, the day may as well already be started."

She turned her eyes over the overly sweet green boy that was sitting on her bed, who was having his own look in concern.

"Thank you…" She said, still looking him in his emerald eyes which held some redness. Could he have been crying?

Beast Boy felt his heart sing at the small, but meaningful words that left her mouth. He stood up and walked over to the girl, and landed his lips on her forehead. "Anytime."

"You're getting a little friendly there, aren't you?"

"I somehow don't think you mind." Beast Boy replied smoothly.

Raven pulled her hood over her head and turned around to walk towards her open doorway. She stopped in between her room and the hall and turned her head to the side to give one eye a look at the handsome boy in her room.

"I don't." She said with a soft smile.

* * *

The scene was a familiar one when Beast Boy and Raven walked into the Common room; Starfire sat on the sofa petting Silkie in her lap, Cyborg was sitting with his elbows resting on his knees as he stared at the ground, and the masked leader was standing in front of the sofa. This time, however, the masked hero held a softer look than the last time they had a meeting like this.

Robin watched with soft eyes as the two newcomers made their way over to the sofa to take their seat next to each other. After they sat down, he caught how close they were to each other. It wasn't anything outrageous, but it was a bit closer than something just friends would do.

He had been noticing that the two have been getting closer and closer over the months, and he had his suspicions as to why. Even before the Brotherhood of Evil came into the picture, Raven had come out of her room more often and Beast Boy had been in her presence more usual than he already was. Seeing those two comfort each other the way they were in her room certainly wasn't something to just discard. He decided he'd ask them about each other later, for there were more pressing matters at the moment.

The masked hero turned his head to face each of his friends, so they knew that he was looking them in the eye as he spoke. "Tonight… All of you witnessed something horrible in your sleep. It might have been a memory or a savage nightmare, the point is that it felt like it was real, and that everything was really happening. They were things that you've folded and stuffed into the corners of your mind, things that your consciousness would never allow you to visit so you can sleep at night. The fact that you all saw something is not of coincidence."

Robin noticed that all of his friends had their eyes on his now, even Cyborg, who was showing his heart crushed face.

"We were poisoned." Robin said as he wished he could've used a different way of saying it, seeing everyone widen their eyes. "But not the traditional kind that invades your system and eventually kills you. It was a type of toxin that entered our bodies, and the only way I can think of as to how it entered our bodies was the mask that Joker threw to us. Did you all touch it after I went to bed?"

Robin took the dumbfounded silence as a yes. "The Joker must've spiked it with something and it got to all of us when we touched it. A similar thing has happened to me before when I thought I was seeing Slade and yes it _pisses_ me off that I got fooled by practically the same damn thing." Robin spat, regaining his hard look.

The others just gave their leader a sad look before the comic relief tried to lift the smothering silence. "So he had one more trick up his sleeve, huh?"

Starfire also spoke. "But Robin, how were you able to awake from your torment?"

"Yeah, no matter what I did, I couldn't get myself to wake up." Raven said, looking at her hands.

Cyborg didn't take the liberty of asking his own question. He merely returned his look to the ground.

Robin looked at the Common room doors as he answered all questions with one answer. "You can thank him for that."

The four Titans gave their leader a confused look before turning around to see who he was talking about, then gaped at the sight of the Dark Knight who was standing in front of the Common room doors.

Batman looked upon the tense teen group before him as he made his way closer to the couch. In his famous monotone he spoke. "I had been in a battle with Joker a few weeks ago, and after he paralyzed me he took my mask instead of killing me. I knew that there had to be something behind that but I couldn't figure out what. I had called Robin several times, who's usually always one to answer. When none of my calls were answered I knew something had to be wrong, so I got over here as soon as I could."

The Titans finally took their eyes of the prime time hero that was in the room, and looked at their leader. None of them were too sure of how to feel.

"The Joker is currently here." Robin said.

With one swift motion all faces turned to ones of anger, and saddened frustration; even Cyborg was grinding his teeth.

"He's currently in the interrogation room." Robin gave a sigh, he didn't want to tell his team what he was about to say, but he knew if it were him he'd want to know. "He was… watching… us live through what we were going through in our sleep."

None of the faces had changed, but Robin could tell their anger was turning into rage when Raven basically spoke for all of them after she started to meditate so she wouldn't destroy the city on accident.

"I didn't want to do anything until all of you were awake. I figured you'd wanna be there when we started questioning him." Robin said, allowing his face to soften.

Yet another brief silence filled the room. Robin couldn't imagine how exposed and violated they all must feel at the moment. To have you worst nightmares be shown into some type of reality was already bad enough, but to have someone watch for kicks must be gut wrenching. None of them deserved this, this was his problem, and he would trade places with them in a second.

Beast Boy rose to his feet to break the angry silence. "Then what are we waiting for." He said through grinded teeth.

Robin yet again snatched his hardened look. "Let's go."

* * *

The walk to the interrogation room had been a suffocating one. There seemed to be a lot of those lately. Everyone had their minds clouded with all kinds of revenge and hatred and how they'd show the madman, and they weren't giving effort to conceal it from their angry faces.

Robin thought that he'd be glad when they'd reach the never ending corridor to the interrogation room, but soon discovered that he was wrong. He almost quaked from the tension when everyone saw the monster that put them through hell through the looking glass. They all piled into the room outside of the actual place where the interrogation would commence, and kept their eyes on the green haired madman, who was whistling a tune to himself.

"Robin." A familiar voice called blankly.

The said hero turned his head to face his old master, waiting for him to continue.

"I'd like a word with you." Batman finished plainly.

Robin looked at the master detective with a questioning look, then turned his eyes to his team, who also seemed to be wondering what the matter was. He knew he shouldn't keep them waiting like this; they deserved information as quick possible.

"I won't be long." Robin said to them, also directing the message to the Dark Knight.

They both turned to walk out of the room, and didn't speak until the doors swished shut.

"Why are we out here Bruce?" Robin said with irritation in his voice.

"I will interrogate the Joker. Not you."

"_What!"_ Robin yelled with widened eyes.

"You're not ready for a mind like his. I'm sorry Dick."

"And how would you know!" Robin yelled again, "You haven't exactly been around enough to know a whole lot about what's been going on or how much I've improved!"

"Look, I've dealt with him countless times and I think I'm the only one capable of even scratching the surface of a mind like his." Batman's cold eyes were splitting his old sidekick in half. "I'm sorry."

"So after everything he's put my team through you're going to cheat them of this?! You don't know what any of them saw! They don't exactly come from happy origins Bruce and I only have a _clue_ of what they went through, so it'd be better if someone who at least had an idea went and spoke for them!"

"I get it Dick, I do." Batman replied quickly, "But this is for your own good."

Robin watched helplessly as Bruce Wayne started for the doors to reenter the interrogation room. He had to do something, fast.

Standing inches from the door, Batman froze at his real name being spoken in a soft tone.\

"Bruce…"

Batman turned around to see his old sidekick looking at him pleadingly. "You can't do this… They aren't just my team, they're my family. I love every single one of them and that man, that _monster_… he _raped_ their minds and either opened up old wounds or made new ones. He nearly took one of their lives. Please, let me do this for them."

Batman kept his neutral look on his former apprentice, but inside there was a battle brewing. He knew the boy deserved to interrogate the man who violated his team, but he also knew that as far as he knew he was the only one that could even somewhat understand the highly unstable mind of the Joker. But the Dark Knight was a symbol of justice, and he knew there would be no justice for Robin, or any of his friends if it was himself who would question the madman.

Perhaps Bruce should've known better than to quickly disregard the improvement of his old sidekick. He had read plenty of articles online and in the newspaper of the Teen Titans and how the Boy Wonder would carefully orchestrate the attack on evil. If Batman had had an ego, perhaps that was it trying to ignore his old partner's abilities.

'_He turned out to be alright on his own.'_ Batman thought to himself.

The Dark Knight finally gave in. "Fine. Clear your mind before you even step foot in that room and remain calm. Don't let him draw you in. I'll be watching closely."

Robin could've hugged his old master, but he wouldn't dare show him that type of jubilancy. He simply regained his hard face, showing the master detective that he was ready for anything.

Batman looked at the boy with his usual cold eyes, "Come on. You're friends have been kept waiting long enough."

* * *

(Same time as the previous scene)

Beast Boy couldn't bare it anymore. He couldn't stand looking at the madman who had attempted to destroy his psyche, and he couldn't take the silence that was threatening to strangle him. He knew there was good reason for the silence, but he didn't want his friends to be beating themselves to death by having their minds on instant replay mode. The changeling looked over to his metallic friend who stood beside him to the left with his fists clenched shut, and his eyes dead set on the green haired man.

Beast Boy put a hand on his best friend's shoulder. "Dude… are you ok?"

Cyborg kept his eyes on the man in the interrogation room with a stone cold look; his face deceived the fact that inside he was dying. The emotional turmoil within him was beginning to slowly grind the broken pieces of his heart to dust. He witnessed everything all over again, and the gut wrenching thing to him was how real it all felt. He could barely hear his green friend asking him if he was alright, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to talk about it. He knew talking about what was tearing you up inside is the best way to not go insane, but the memories of everything were just stabbing through his heart, and seeing the one responsible for it didn't make them go away either.

Then he remembered that he wasn't the only one who went through something horrible. All of his friends had seen things that they either prayed they'd never go through again, or ever live to see. None would talk about what they saw unless someone spoke up first, and he needed to know that they were going to be alright. He loved his friends too much to be selfish and not make sure they were ok, and he would sacrifice his emotional comfort for the healthy psyche of each and every one of them. It was just who he was, this was his family; they took him in when no one else even gave a thought of accepting him. His appearance made no difference to them, and was in fact embraced, for being different was the normal thing for the teen family.

Beast Boy removed his hand from his friends shoulder, and casted his sad eyes to the ground. He could only imagine what any of his other friends saw, but he knew it must have been something brutal to keep his cheerful half metal friend quiet. That's why he was surprised when he heard the said friend's cold voice.

"He made me live through it again."

Beast Boy cocked an eyebrow after bringing his eyes back to him. Neither of the two noticed the girls take their eyes off of the room to look at their metallic friend in interest.

"All of it." He continued. "The experiment, the monster, my mom, me getting mutilated, waking up to my new body. I went through everything all over again." Cyborg finished, clenching his fists so hard that Beast Boy thought they were going to burst from the mass pressure.

Beast Boy looked upon the half metal face of his violated friend. He knew his own past wasn't a great thing to remember, but he couldn't imagine what his friend had gone through. He at least was a baby when he went through his change; Cyborg was a teen and in high school already, just starting his life. There's no way he could ever imagine the horror that turned his life around, and honestly, he didn't want to.

Then green hero looked at his friend a moment longer, and then turned his face to the man in the room. He knew he had to say something; his friend would need someone to share his pain with. That's what family was for after all, they were there to share the weight of the world through the good and the bad.

"If it makes you feel any better, I killed all of you as the beast." He said plainly.

Cyborg widened his eye, and looked down on his best friend, who was also keeping his eyes on the madman in the room that was still whistling to himself.

"And nothing I did could make it stop." he continued, "No matter how hard I tried to make my body move in a direction, and no matter how much I begged myself to not slaughter all of you, my limbs just wouldn't listen."

Beast Boy closed his eyes, and hung his head in shame. How could something so savage come out of his mind?

He then felt a heavy hand rest on his shoulder. The changeling looked up to see the sympathetic look on his best friend's face, which allowed his frown to disintegrate. The look his friend was giving was all he needed to give for a response. They would be alright and get through this, just like they always did. It was something they learned to do so at an early age.

Suddenly, a pair of hands laid themselves on his opposite shoulder, one cold while the other warm. He turned his head to peak behind him, and found an empath and an alien princess, giving him emotionally worn out smiles. The green hero gave his own tired beam, and started to thank everything that was holy that he had his friends. The only people in this world that would dare to accept him, because they knew what it was like to be unaccepted. Who knows where he would be without them.

The moment was cut down whenever they heard the doors open, revealing the old dynamic duo of Gotham city. Robin walked into the room with a hard face, looking at the man in the interrogation room.

"It's time." He said.

The four other Titans watched as their leader made his way into the room, while his old master stood in front of the team observing through the looking glass. They all started to understand where Robin got his usual facial expression from; they swore they hadn't seen the Dark Knight even scratch his concrete expression since he'd been there.

The other teens mimicked the two, as they put on their own mask of neutrality.

Robin walked into the dark room of which had concrete walls and a concrete floor. The whole domain was painted a very dark grey, and had nothing inside it except a window for observation, and a brown table with two chairs of the same color, one of which was currently occupied.

The masked hero held his determined look, and never took his eyes off the Joker, who wore a smug expression on his face.

He carefully pulled out his own seat, and inspected the seat of the chair before sitting down; he didn't want to be fooled by anymore antics. After placing his bottom on the chair, he rested his arms on the chocolate brown table and folded his hands, still piercing through the carefree eyes of the madman.

The Joker spoke before Robin could get what he wanted to say out. "Ahh the Boy Wonder. So I get you instead of the old man eh? Ya know I always liked you more. You were always more gullible than Batsy."

The four Titans outside the room moved their eyes over to the master detective that was watching extremely observantly. None were surprised to see that his monotonous gaze never even flinched at the mention. They all started to wonder how in the world he can keep a look for such a long time; even Raven questioned how he could muster up such facial endurance. Finally accepting the constant scowl, they redirected their attention to the interrogation.

Batman was thankful that he could retain such a blank expression. It had won him several psychological battles during his crime fighting career. He wasn't emotionless; however, as he began to hope that Robin wouldn't take the insult to heart. Batman worried for the boy, which was something he did more than people knew, hoping that it would just bounce off him.

Robin was prepared for this man to try and throw obstacles at him, so his mental titanium walls were more than ready to deflect the comment easily. He narrowed his eyes at the green haired man, and ignored the off track words.

"Why are you here Joker?"

"Why am I here?" Joker put his hand cuffed hands up to his chin to pretend to think of an answer, "Oh! To pay an old pal of mine a visit!"

Robin knew getting into this man's head would be trickier than any other villain he's interrogated; trying to penetrate his own defenses would be like trying to figure out the right wire to cut on a time bomb. The worst thing he could do would be to play along in Joker's game, and should he get in on the opportunity he would be done for and the interrogation would be a bust. Asking the next question would be the best thing to do right now.

"How did you get Slade's mask?"

Joker cocked an eyebrow. "Is that the name Deathstroke goes by these days? Anyways, he was the top dog in town and I don't like sharing, so I had to let him know that you kiddies were all mine and he had to get out of the picture. Permanently."

The masked hero kept his face neutral, but felt a bit ashamed for feeling glad that his life would finally be rid of the one eyed man. That would have to be something he'd think about later on.

"How'd you get in the tower?"

"Had a little help."

"From?"

"Only thing I'll say is, not everyone on the good guys is your friend." Joker replied grimly.

Robin could only wonder where had gotten his 'help' from.

'_He couldn't mean the police could he? It would make sense, he's usually good at pulling strings and ruining minds of average officers or sneaking in someone who isn't really part of the force.'_ Robin thought.

"How'd you slip through the alarm? It's virtually impossible for anyone to get in through the outside without it going off."

"Oh no it did." Joker said, making the Boy Wonder raise his own eyebrow. "But a mere noise wasn't going to wake you up from whatever Hell you were all going through. No it was going to take more than that. So I had plenty of time to figure out how to turn the damn thing off and catch all the premier shows in time. Some more than others." He said, finishing his last statement with a shrug.

Robin gave it his best effort to not punch the lights out of this disgusting creature he was speaking to. To sit down and watch them all go through their deepest, most degrading fear was an unspeakable act that only someone who lacked a soul would commit. But then again, Robin was never sure if this man had once since the day he etched his name in the history book of villains.

He then remembered how his old teacher said that he had to have a clear mind to take on a mind as complex as Joker's, so he relaxed his breathing and continued.

"What was it that you put in our bodies?"

"Oh you should know the answer to that one already bird boy. Just a little something I made on my spare time to, hop around and make a ruckus in your central nervous system while you all slept comfortably. From what I saw it sure did pack a punch!" Joker replied.

The masked leader clenched his hands in their folded position and tried to disregard what he thought his team must have gone through individually. At this rate all he tried to do was ask the next question as quick as he possibly could while registering the information of the responses at the same time, for the sake of his dignity and crime fighting career.

"Why'd you pick the docks to give me Batman's mask?"

"_Oh come on!"_ Joker yelled as he slammed his fists.

Everyone except for the Dark Knight and his old apprentice flinched at the sudden outburst. Joker kept his hostile look at the masked leader.

"You don't seriously think I was there just for that _do_ you?" He demanded.

Robin could feel his stomach begin to churn, while Batman simply had his factory like mind working on a theory as to why exactly he was there.

"I thought you were better than that." Joker turned his head to look at the window. "And I certainly thought _you_ were better than that." He directed to Batman.

"Let's keep this in here." Robin said coldly.

Joker quickly returned his attention to the Boy Wonder. "Here, I'll give you all a hint. What's bright and red, and makes a nice big mushroom after it does its magic?" Robin's heart dropped at those words. "It's the destroyer of worlds, and may as well be _death_ itself. It'll have countries trembling in fear, and they'll all _piss_ themselves from the realization of what a 'crazy' man, with a multi-ton megawatt gun can do. And that's when they'll wonder if they themselves are actually the 'crazy' men when they threaten everyday to obliterate a neighbor. It's simply just a mental wakeup call. Can you guess what it is yet?"

The four Titans gaped in horror at the madman who surprisingly wasn't laughing. He just fired a smug face at their leader. Batman's face of neutrality finally fell and grew into a look with wide eyes.

Robin had to fight every fiber of his being to not show his own look of shock, and to not jump over the table and strangle the life out of the monster in the opposite chair.

"Where did you get it?" Robin said through grinded teeth, narrowing his eyes.

The Joker still kept his smug smile, and gave a bone chilling response.

"Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock." He turned his head to look at the audience that was observing behind the window. "Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock."

"Who has the detonator?!" Robin yelled.

"Tick. Tock."

Robin couldn't take anymore of this madness as he abruptly rose from his seated position, and walked hastily out the room. The green haired man let his words ring louder and louder with each step the Boy Wonder took, and finally let out a string of laughter once he exited the room.

The observing group watched their leader exit the interrogation room with horrified expressions.

The masked hero simply gave them his usual determined look. "We've got work to do."

He looked at his old master, who returned the determined gaze.

"I'll call the league." He said.

* * *

"You're kidding. A nuclear bomb?" A disbelieving Superman asked.

"Yes. And it sounds live and ready to go with a push of a button, though we don't know who has the detonator." Batman replied blankly.

"Then it sounds like we need to act now. Flash, Manhunter, Lantern, and I will be on our way as soon as you send us the coordinates. You should come too; we'll need all the intelligent minds we can muster, especially with Martian Manhunter not being entirely familiar with human technology."

"I'll come too."

Superman sent his gaze behind Batman, the Dark Knight followed his eyes and turned from the giant TV screen to see a half metal man stepping up to the screen.

"I'll help handle the nuke." Cyborg continued, with a hell bent determined look.

Superman gave the teen hero a quizzical face. "I don't think you should Cyborg, it'll be extremely dangerous and your city ne-"

"No Clark, it's a good idea." Batman broke in.

Superman gave the master detective a surprised look. "Bruce, are you sure?" Clark asked.

"Yes. I've read his files and his intelligence goes to the ranks of Manhunter and I, and he excels at dealing with technology. We'll need him."

Superman processed the information that had just now been given to him, and displayed a face of assurance, clearly convinced from Batman's explanation.

"Alright, fine. Robin, it's your team. You tell them where to go."

Robin stood behind the sofa with the rest of his team looking at the man of steel, and replied. "Cyborg will join you at the docks. It sounds like you'll have your best hands on deck there so I'll distribute my team. Raven and Beast Boy will stay here with Joker while Starfire and I will go downtown to city hall to warn the mayor."

Both Batman and Superman gave the Boy Wonder a satisfied nod.

"I'm sending the coordinates over now Clark. Cyborg and I will be leaving as soon as I send them." Batman said.

"As will we. Superman out."

The large picture of Superman faded out to a black void as Robin turned around to face all of his team.

"Alright, we have a nuclear bomb at the docks that could wipe out all of Jump City and may reach the outskirts of surrounding cities. Does everyone understand the magnitude of the situation and does everyone know what their job is?"

Robin looked at every individual of his team as they each gave a determined nod to their leader.

"Then we're ready. Titans, Go!"

* * *

Alright so the getting the Justice League involved may or may not have upset some of you. Personally, if I were a reader, it'd upset me heh so I promise that this will be a TEEN TITANS story and not a Teen Titans AND the Justice League story. I hope you enjoyed the read!


	6. The Plot

Alright, sorry for making this one terribly long heheh but I think you'll like it. So enjoy! Review, comment, and favorite!

* * *

The rising sun stabbed through the dimly lit skies to reveal a new day. A new day usually would mean plenty of things. It meant a chance at redemption, love, happiness, and even just the simple grace of a second chance. This particular day held much more meaning, however, then any of those marvelous things. Today held the potential to be the greatest domestic terrorism attack on U.S. soil, and the fiery death of millions of people. The magnitude of the situation truly couldn't be more neck breaking.

The flight over to the possible scene of utter chaos was a quiet, but intense one. There were very few words that were spoken and the ones that were had been told at the beginning of the trip. They had been regular, curious questions and comments such as, 'where do you think Joker got the bomb', and 'this'll be really bad if we don't stop him'.

None of the heroes that were visiting Jump City had ever taken the psychopath on their own, but they all knew enough from their master detective's obsession and information that he truly was a force to be reckoned with. He didn't have overwhelming strength or unnatural power; he simply was a mentally unstable man who had a genius mind. A good comparison to that would be like giving a child a loaded gun.

After a few minutes of flight in Lantern's orb, Superman and his band of his strongest heroes landed on the pier. Hal removed his green shield once they touched down, and noticed that there were police officers already setting up a perimeter around the building with yellow tape. None of the team remembered Bruce saying that they'd contact the police.

"Someone must've reported all the bodies in the building." Superman said as they began to make their way over to the building with him leading the way. "Flash, I want you to go around and get people away from here, take them as far as you can."

"On it." Flash was already halfway through Jump City when he finished those words.

"So what's the plan Clark?" Hal Jordan asked as he watched his red friend turn into wind.

Superman kept his steady pace. "We're gonna go inside and wait for Bruce and Cyborg to show up. Manhunter can take a look at the bomb if he wants, but we'll mainly be waiting on those two. We should also keep watch for anything outside the building that has anything to do with that maniac."

The Green Lantern looked to his right to give a side glance at the alien hero Superman had mentioned. To this day he couldn't imagine how difficult it must be for Manhunter to adapt to life on earth, the planet he came from sounded very different than the way things were here. He's saved the planet and its people more than enough times to let the League and the rest of the world know that he was an ally, but sometimes, Hal wondered if he really knew why he would risk his life to save everyone. It appeared that not only would people of earth sometimes not understand him, but he himself would not understand them. Lantern quickly discarded the thoughts when an officer dressed in what some would've guessed to be a space suit approached them.

"Morning Superman." The officer greeted.

"Good morning." Superman replied with a determined tone. "What's the situation?"

"We've cleared the building of its carnage and right now we've got it quarantined, I'd say we've got it under control."

"Has your team found anything… that shouldn't be there?"

"No, but as I've said we've got it under control."

Manunter narrowed his eyes as he became suspicious, this man was being entirely too dismissive.

Lantern became uneasy as well. Usually any police force would be practically inviting them into a crime scene, but this one in particular seemed to be pushing them away.

"Well, we'd like to take a look around." Superman said, feeling the same suspicion his companions were experiencing.

"I don't think you understand sir, my men and I have everything under control and there's no reason for you to go in there." The officer replied with a slight hostile tone.

Manhunter narrowed his eyes.

Something was wrong.

"Hal, watch out!"

Lantern turned in time to find a group of officers lined up in a formation similar to a firing squad. The second he met their gaze they opened fire, giving Hal barely enough time to cast a green shield around him and his savior, Manhunter. The five men fired their blasters at them relentlessly, and Hal was starting to feel the heat of it as he grimaced with each second the lasers pounded onto his unnatural shield. Reacting earlier to Manhunter's quick save, Superman landed a punch into the stomach of the man he was speaking to and threw him aside effortlessly.

Superman turned his attention towards the group outside of the green shield, and was about to yell out an order when suddenly all the men had hit the ground, clutching their stomachs.

The man of steel gave the group an odd look as it appeared that the wind was pulling them all together into a huddle with their backs touching each other, tying them up with rope. The wind started to die down as bits and pieces of red slowly became clearer and clearer, until it revealed Flash.

"Trouble already?" The speedy hero asked.

"I suspect the Joker has tainted the minds of these men." Manhunter said.

"What makes you think that?" Flash replied sarcastically.

"Cut it out. Bruce is here." Lantern said curtly.

The four observed a white and blue car skid sideways to a stop at the scene of incapacitated men with cold faces that matched the Cape Crusaders own.

With the roar of the engine now cut off, Cyborg and Batman stepped out of their seats and walked over to the group. Cyborg had a confused look on his face while Batman kept his same expression.

"Uh, what'd we miss?" Cyborg asked.

"Joker's men have obtained the appearance of members of the police force." Superman informed. "That'll be something to tell Robin later."

"That's also a very good possibility as to how he managed to get to the tower." Batman said, giving his new metallic friend a blank expression.

Cyborg's expression was a grim one as he brought it to the building. "So the bomb's inside?"

"We think so, but we haven't checked yet. We were going to go inside and wait for you, but we ran into some interference, as you can see." Manhunter said while looking upon the subdued men.

"Well there's no time to waste. We should get going." Batman said, starting the group walk into the building that had their fates by the throat.

* * *

(Same time as previous scene)

Raven and Beast Boy sat quietly on the chairs that they had brought over into the outside of the interrogation room. Both of them had finally found it in them to not look at the green haired man, who was currently resting his chin on both of his palms. The moment they shared with the rest of their friends took a load off their minds, and so they were able to relax a bit and let go of the bitterness that was threatening to swallow them whole. However, despite the fact he was surely in their custody, neither Titans still weren't entirely comfortable with being the only ones there to watch him. They'd only heard a few stories about what the disturbed genius was capable of doing, but it was more than enough to convince them that given the slightest of opportunities, he'd take it.

They had only been there for a few minutes but an awkward silence had already started to fill the air, and those usually didn't sit well with Beast Boy. Here he was with his beautiful crush, and he was at a loss for words. That usually doesn't happen either, but then again, he doesn't end up alone with the empath very often. He thought that maybe this would be a good time to get some talking in. They hadn't really had a chance to do any since he had almost died right in front of her. It'd be as good a time as ever it would appear.

Raven sat in her chair with her arms and legs crossed and her eyes on no particular spot in the room. She was tapping her fingers on her arm in both impatience and irritation. Would this be considered an appropriate time to talk to Beast Boy about… them? This would probably be the most private time they'd have with each other for a while, but they were supposed to be keeping an eye on the animal they had caged. It was extremely imperative to keep a close eye on him, they both knew that, but just sitting in each other's presence without talking about what they're going to do was near impossible. How hard could it be to talk and watch somebody?

'_It'll be just like driving and talking…'_ Raven tried to convince herself.

Not being able to remember the last time she even got behind the wheel of anything, the empath lowered her hood and gave an unsure sigh before she spoke to her green friend.

"Beast Boy."

"Rae."

They both looked at each other with blushes creeping on their faces when they realized they spoke in unison.

The unity continued.

"Sorry. You go first. No you. Damn it stop!"

Beast Boy finally broke the harmony that they had formed when he threw his hands up. "Alright, alright! You can go!"

Raven gave a soft smile of triumph, and then realized that she had no clue of what to say to this boy. She had wanted to talk to him about her feelings and after she got the chance, she had no idea what to say to him. How could she approach something like this so ill prepared? She had a plan to everything, and she was displeased at how she didn't devise one when she intended to speak to him. This was unlike her, and that alone was beginning to irritate her.

'_How do regular people __**do**__ this?' _she thought to herself.

Beast Boy was starting to become confused at how silent and absentminded Raven appeared to be. He wasn't sure if she even knew she was being so quiet, it looked like she was thinking to herself and she just forgot that he was there.

"Uh, I thought you wanted to go first?" Beast Boy interrupted sheepishly.

Raven widened her eyes and realized that she had been sitting there in silence and kept the boy waiting. She chastised herself and quickly pulled something out of thin air.

"I… uh… Beast Boy…"

'_Damn it, get yourself together! Why is this so hard?!'_ she thought to herself.

"Maybe you should go first." She finally mustered, hoping he wouldn't see the blush that was easily showing on her face.

Beast Boy did in fact notice, and smiled inside. He dared not show it on his exterior, however; he didn't want to give the empath the wrong idea that he thought this was going to be easy and that he was being cocky about the whole thing. In truth, he was just as nervous as she was. He knew that if he didn't say this right then everything would be ruined and it would be very difficult to rebuild what had taken years to construct. Blowing this opportunity was not an option.

"Ok." He started, being sure to meet her violet orbs with his own emerald ones as he turned his whole body in his chair to face her. "Rae, I… I like you. A whole hell of a lot."

Raven looked at him with vulnerable eyes, it was the first time Beast Boy had ever seen her beautiful face hold such an insecure expression. He strongly desired to say, 'to hell with this', and just throw his arms around her, but he knew something like this would need absolute care. It surely would be difficult for not only Raven to forgive him if he hurt her, but for himself to allow him to get over it. It was just the damn look in her eyes; it was truly showing that this was all new to her and she wasn't sure how to handle it.

He continued on with contained boldness. "I've liked you for a long while, and that's the honest truth. So if you're having any thoughts that maybe I just got caught up in the moment when I kissed your hand or held you in your bed, get rid of them because they aren't true. I think you're absolutely beautiful and I always feel like your eyes are looking straight through me, but for some reason I always just want to see more and more of them. I don't know if you've ever noticed, but I live to make you smile. If I could I'd take a picture of you every time you give one, and you couldn't get me to sell it for all the money in the world."

Raven's face was burning furiously in red as she took in all of the boy's words. Garfield Mark Logan could truly be the sweetest person she'd ever known when he wasn't being obnoxious, and even if she tried to shut out his kindness right now she would fail miserably. The bold words from the green boy were drawing her in more and more, and it was futile to attempt to tear her eyes away from his own bright pair. It was a good thing she wasn't required to talk at the moment, there was no way she was going to be able to push her voice past the heart that was stuck in her throat. She kept her blush but didn't allow a smile to creep onto her face until she assumed he had finished.

Beast Boy gave a relieved sigh, saying heartfelt things could truly be stressful. His stress quickly made its return however when he remembered that the empath may have words that she'd like to share. His past would dictate that he wasn't the luckiest person that's ever lived, so why would this situation be any different? He began to prepare himself as best as he could for any reason she'd give for them not to be together. He hung his head and rested his elbows on his knees as he hoped that he hadn't said too much when the empath started.

"Beast Boy…"

The changeling almost grimaced at the softness of the tone his name was spoken in; this was going to be bad.

Raven felt her own feeling of boldness as she took the hand of the changeling who had taken the leap of faith in telling her his confession. She already admired him for that, but looking at him now, there were many more reasons as to why she cared for this boy. This boy, who could be so childish and obscene, yet so sweet and caring, had claimed her heart utterly. The half demon daughter of Trigon the Terrible, fell for the green orphaned changeling.

Beast Boy felt his hand being taken, and looked up with surprised eyes. His empath was looking at him with assuring violet orbs, and a smile to go with it. It was quickly replaced with a frown, which made his heart take a slight plunge.

'_Here it comes…'_ Beast Boy thought, mentally bracing himself.

"Beast Boy, the feelings are mutual. They really are. But… my powers. Trigon may no longer be an influence on them, but I still have to be careful with my emotions. Granted I have more room to express them, I still can't go crazy. You saw that when I had to immediately meditate after Robin told us what _he_ did." Raven said, giving the Joker a detested look before bringing them back to the changelings. "I could've destroyed the city I was so angry."

Beast Boy's eyes became sad and his ears drooped as he looked at Raven. He wasn't entirely sure where this was going but hearing that was disappointing in itself.

Raven was glad she had something good following what she was saying; she couldn't bare the look his eyes were giving.

"However," She continued, seeing the boys ears shoot up and his eyes hold optimism once again. "with more years of training, I may be able to freely roam without any… incidents."

Beast Boy felt like he had heard the most beautiful song that had ever been composed in the form of that one sentence. He flashed a stupid grin, as his confidence knew no bounds with his next words.

"So, what does that mean Rae?"

"It means, after you stop calling me that, that I would… deeply enjoy a relationship with you, Garfield."

Beast Boy was giving it his best effort to not fidget in his seat, this was too much for him to handle and sit still at the same time. This young woman that he'd had a mad crush on for years now had shamelessly admitted that she felt the same way, and that she would actually _deeply _enjoy being in a relationship with him. It sure was going to be one hell of a story to tell the others about them but they'll handle that when the time comes.

The only thing that mattered right now was him and her, in this moment that would stay in their hearts forever. For a brief moment, they were normal teenagers. There was no crime fighting, they weren't superheroes and there was no madman that was threatening to wipe out an entire city with a push of a button. It was as good as ignorant bliss could get.

They both latched their hands gently onto each other's faces, and slowly leaned in. Their stomachs were running laps and their minds were racing with a thousand thoughts a minute. Their hearts felt like they were about to burst right out of their chests and fall right onto the floor from the intense pounding they were doing. With each inch of space they closed, it pounded harder and harder, until finally their lips crashed onto each other as their eyes fluttered shut.

The electricity that ran through their bones made them both slightly jump; the kiss was truly a fantastic one. Raven slowly took her hands off of his face and wrapped them around his neck to bring him closer. She honestly how no idea how such an affectionate act would feel both physically and emotionally, but she now had a full grasp on what the hype of the whole thing was. His lips on hers made her want more, and to never let him leave her side as long as she could help it. His presence was the only thing that she needed and she wanted to embrace as much of it as she could.

They had both gotten used to the blush that was on their face, so they weren't paying any attention to it. After all, who cared?

The only thing either of them cared for was each other and this moment that would be forever, etched into their lives.

The moment was so intoxicating that they couldn't hear the sounds of a helicopter steadily growing louder.

* * *

(Same time as previous two scenes)

Starfire flew through the downtown buildings, weaving in and out of structures with her boyfriend in her arms hectically. Robin didn't mind, all that mattered was getting to city hall as quickly as possible. Time was of the essence and every second was a step closer to absolute destruction and mass hysteria among the west coast.

The country would be thrown into a fear stricken state at the thought of the Justice League and Teen Titans failing at stopping a domestic terrorist ploy and everyone would live in fear. The bomb itself would be terrible for the people, but the fact that no one would trust them to get anything done and possible exile would not be good. The Joker had done some horrific things, but he was taking this to a grand scale, and he would be stopped.

'_I'll make sure of it.'_ Robin thought with narrowed eyes.

"Robin, is this the hall of the city?" Starfire asked.

Robin looked down at the all brick rectangular building that stood in the center of downtown Jump City; it had statues of the Titans in front of the construction as a token of appreciation for always being there for them.

"Yeah Star, this is the place."

The alien quickly made their descent down in front of the building and gently landed both her and Robin's feet on the ground. They quickly began to walk towards the white doors of the building that would hold the mayor's office with determination that was not to be deterred. Well, Robin was anyway.

He lead the way with his fist pumping during his hasty pace, leaving Starfire caught between deciding either to float or walk quickly to keep up with his speedy stroll. The Boy Wonder never took his eyes off the doors; nothing could distract him of his goal in warning the leader of the city. At least if they failed in stopping the bomb from going off, some people would have a chance to get out, and that was better than none leaving with their lives.

The masked hero extended his arms to roughly push open the large stone doors, and continued his harsh pace. Once inside he saw a beautiful blond, curly haired woman at a long desk with an earpiece on. She wore a baby blue sleeveless blouse that revealed the slightest hint of cleavage, and she had the blue eyes to match her dress. Robin made his way over hastily to the receptionist.

"I need to see the mayor right now." Robin demanded in a inconsiderate tone, which sounded ruder than he intended.

"I'm sorry Mr. Robin, as much as you're welcomed here and in the mayor's office, he's in a meeting right now. Could this possibly wait?" The sweet sounding blond woman asked.

"No actually it can't. I have to see him now. It's extremely urgent." Robin insisted.

"Well as I've said Mr. Robin, the mayor is-"

"I don't have time for this." Robin said as he brushed aside the woman who was trying to sway him away from her boss.

He walked quickly to his right down a corridor that had several doors along the walls, but none in particular he was looking for. His destination was at the end of the red carpeted hallway, labeled:

**Mayor White**

Starfire did her best to keep up with her boyfriend, who was still caught between walking quickly and floating. Robin didn't notice; he pushed open the white wooden door and found the mayor sitting behind his desk with his office phone to his ear. He had an eyebrow raised, clearly confused at the sudden barge into his spacious office.

The office had a window for a wall right behind the mayor in his wheeled chair, and it looked over several streets and buildings of Jump City when the blinds were pulled up. The whole scene was painted a wooden light brown, and on his desk that was covered with papers, was a picture of a beautiful, light skinned, brunette.

The mayor of Jump City looked like a behind the desk person if Robin had ever seen one. He wore a plain white button up shirt with a red tie, and black slacks to top off the whole outfit. His gut was bulging and appeared that it was close to threatening to do away with the pants button. The brown goatee on his wrinkled face was complimented by his dark brown eyes. Brown wasn't the only thing his eyes had at the moment; they had their share of confusion.

"Sorry Mayor White, but there are important matters at hand that you need to be made aware of." Robin informed quickly.

The heavy set mayor gave his city hero an odd look, and finally said, "I'll have to call you back James."

He set the phone down and rested his elbows on the brown wooden desk, and rested his chin on his knuckles.

"What's this about?"

* * *

(Last time, same as previous three scenes)

Joker sat impatiently in the depressing interrogation room, beginning to become slightly irritated. He knew his plan required him to wait, but that still didn't mean he had to exactly _feel_ patient, just as long as he did it. Still, the anticipation was becoming great and he started to fidget at the momentous occasion. It had been about a half hour since the bird boy had left the room, and he knew for a fact that they were off looking for that damn bomb.

He figured that Bats probably would have called the Justice League for help, and knowing that self righteous prick, Superman, they'd be bringing their strongest heroes. That didn't scare the evil genius one bit; he in fact, planned for their appearance. As for the Titans, they'd probably be distributed among the city taking care of errands to help out. The green haired madman had his suspicions as to where they could be, but he was pretty certain that they wouldn't be stupid enough to leave him at the tower by himself. Joker wasn't stressed however, because one thing was definitely for sure; it didn't matter where any of them were.

They were all his for the taking.

It'll be killing two birds with one stone. And he only had to get his hands a little dirty; at least so far. The only slaying he'd done was with that idiot Deathstroke, or as people around her called him, 'Slade'. What the hell kind of name was that?

The Joker found it very convenient that the apprentice wrapped fool was out of the picture permanently; he wouldn't have to worry about his ego trying to stop him from taking the city and the heroes that were once his. And on a side note, this city needed a classic criminal; Slade just wasn't getting it done. It was about time to take a struggling starter and put him on the bench to be a spectator. So this city would get what it needed; it was nearer than anyone realized where he'd show this town what a classic criminal was. A criminal that would make them squeal and run, and hide their children and spouses. Oh yes, he could taste the panic now.

'_Any minute now…'_ Joker thought to himself.

He tapped his foot and looked at the window that more than likely hid an audience. The madman gave a smug smile, and spoke quietly to himself.

"Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock."

(Back on track!)

* * *

The Justice League heroes, plus one Titan, stood at the front inside of the warehouse which held the weapon of mass destruction. Their attention was directed to the back left corner, which was housing something of decent size; there was a khaki colored drape over it to hide the thing from sight. Whatever it was, it was about the size of a smart car. Simple logic would give the conclusion that this was the nuclear bomb that the Joker had in his possession.

Superman broke the determined silence that was settling in. "Manhunter, could you use your telepathy and take that drape off?" he asked, not wanting to set anything off by touching it.

Manhunter gave the man of steel an assuring nod, and put his hands to his head as he imagined the blanket being lifted straight up, and then thrown off to the side. If his eyes hadn't been closed, he would've seen an instant replay of what he just thought of, as the drape did as it was commanded.

The heroes all held their breath when they saw it.

Death itself.

It looked like a silver mini blimp that was resting on a dolly, which seemed to be somewhat struggling to hold the bomb's weight. Its tip was painted red while its body showed everyone their reflection in its ominous steel. The weapon itself appeared to be in a dormant state, like a dragon sleeping before it swallowed a village whole. Batman guesstimated that it weighed about maybe a ton or two, but that still didn't take away the fact that this object could start madness if it wasn't handled properly.

As they walked over to the weapon, Superman spoke. "Hal, you and Flash watch our backs while we work on this; Cyborg, feel free to start as soon as we get there."

The said heroes took to their duty once they reached their destination. Flash and Lantern both turned around to watch their surroundings, while the others observed the half metal man kneel down to peer at some sort of control box.

The box was attached to the bomb and was painted black; next to the box was a bright blue button that rested on the bomb as well. The button had an ominous glow to its color, which was similar to Cyborg's own. Normally, he'd be far too careful to merely just go around pushing buttons that he wasn't sure about, but the Joker had the detonator somewhere, so he'd be in control of when the bomb goes off. The madman had a plan to everything, and having a random child stumble on the weapon and pushing the button to end everything in sight would be extremely convenient, unless it were part of the plan.

Cyborg figured that the bright button must be to open the control box, since there were no handle or nails on the black shape.

The half metal hero lifted his hand and extended his finger, carefully aiming for the button. It was a task that should really take only a second to do, but that second felt like minutes.

In this second, people were taking their last breaths on earth and children's lives were in the process of being cut short before they can live, some before they could even breathe. It was this very second, that Jump City would feel the wrath of a madman with a gun. The seeds of panic and fear were sprouting rapidly as Cyborg's metal finger drew nearer and nearer to the button; the catalyst to events that Jump City would not soon forget. After all, that's what the Joker aimed for.

He pushed the button and grimaced. Something wasn't right about that damn thing. He couldn't shake the feeling that something was going horribly wrong.

He had a bad feeling about pushing the fate sealing button.

* * *

The bliss of the kiss was enough to drown out all of Beast Boy and Raven's senses. Using only the components of taste and touch, they lost themselves further and further into each other's affection without any intentions to try and pull themselves out. Raven had thought about possibly stopping as soon as it started, but she found that she enjoyed the grace of his lips too much to even keep that thought.

Beast Boy cursed the need for oxygen, he'd need to pull away soon to let his lungs receive some. Other than that, there was nothing that could break apart this long anticipated moment. Not even the animal they had caged could interrupt.

_**BOOM**_

The deafening explosion was mind piercing, and the new couple tore away from each other in eye popping surprise. They immediately looked inside the interrogation room, and saw a wide, jagged hole in the wall behind Joker. Filling the void was an image of a black helicopter, its black blades rotated at incredible speed, causing any other noise besides the chopper to be shut out. The vehicle rotated so its side could face the hole, and in the entry of the chopper was a police officer standing with an extended hand.

The Titans then saw the Joker walk to the hole with a satisfied grin on his face.

It had begun.

Several more explosions sounded off, but these sounded more distant. They sounded like they were _in _the tower. The madman was destroying their home!

Joker walked gleefully to the chopper, clearly pleased with how his plan was radpidly unfolding. The Titans would soon be homeless, so they'd have no secretive place to plan anything, and even if they wanted to plan together, Joker didn't think they'd be seeing each other any time soon. He turned his head to put his gaze on the looking glass window.

"Goodbye boys and girls! It was fun!"

Raven harshly grabbed Beast Boy's arm. "Beast Boy we gotta stop him!" she said as Joker jumped into the chopper.

The changeling gave her a firm nod, and was never given a chance to morph after he heard another ear crushing boom. He looked up to find the ceiling of the watch room coming down on them mercilessly. His eyes widened in panic from realization; there's no way Raven would react in time to stop the torn apart ceiling that was descending speedily upon them.

"Rae!" He screamed.

The changeling leapt forward onto the empath, and took as much pain for her that his body would allow, until it'd finally give out.

He lied on top of her in push up position and clenched his eyes shut. Before his vision went to black, he saw the scared look in his beloved's eyes. He just couldn't have this one thing that he so badly wanted, could he?

If this was how he was supposed to leave this world, then he could leave with no regrets. He had lived a near full life for a fifteen year old. He had fought, laughed, cried, been exiled then accepted. Out of all those things, there was one component of his existence that was missing, and it somewhat was filled at one point in time, but now he could say that it was completely achieved. After years of uncertainty, then several months of pain and confusion, this component had finally been born. He had finally found love.

He closed his eyes peacefully, as everything went dark.

His consciousness now exploring the depths of death.

* * *

"A nuclear bomb?!"

"Yes sir. Primed and ready to blow whenever he says." Robin replied to the stocky mayor.

The mayor rose to his feet and grabbed his black overcoat from his coat hanger and started for the door.

"We have to warn everybody then." He said firmly. "People need to get out of the city no-"

_**BOOM**_

Robin gaped in horror as the ceiling of the spacious office collapsed on top of the mayor, taking his life abruptly. He looked up to see that it was also coming for him. The Boy Wonder was frozen in shock.

"Robin!" Starfire yelled.

The alien princess's yell shook him from his trance, bringing his attention to his girlfriend who was a few yards from him. She desperately reached her hand out in an attempt to grasp her boyfriend.

Robin could see rubble falling around her, and the same for him. His existence didn't matter; all that mattered was feeling the strange girl who had forever changed his life, for possibly one last time. He dove with all the strength his legs could muster and Starfire flew towards the boy speedily.

Time had slowed down for these two, as if to make this despair more torturous than it already was. Robin knew Starfire was flying at top speed and he also knew he was making a nice leap, but he still felt like he had jumped out of quicksand. It didn't help seeing the helplessness that resided in her usual cheerful green eyes.

Their finger tips grazed each other when rubble had ransacked the small space between the two. Their momentum was stopped by the falling pieces of brick and asphalt. Starfire knelt down and put her hands over her head, hoping that with her strength she could push out off the rocky mess that'd pile on top of her.

Robin turned around and bolted for the desk that the mayor had used for a few years now. He slid underneath it and put his hands just above his face, so nothing would take his eyes out when the furniture would come down. Within seconds, the fallen ceiling had made the desk collapse on top of the boy.

The room was a giant mess of rock and brick; just like other branches of city hall.

* * *

"You kids excited to see DC?"

"Yes!" Paul's two boys declared in unison.

Paul turned around in his driver seat to face his two beautiful boys. Both were still in elementary and looked quite like him. His oldest son Terry, who was in fifth grade, had his father's dark skin complexion and dark brown hair and eyes. The boy wore white Skechers with blue jean shorts and a Los Angeles Angles shirt. His brother, Andrew, who was in third grade, also shared his father's traits. He wore black Nike shoes with high white socks. To go along with his shoes, he wore black basketball shorts and a Los Angeles Dodgers tee shirt.

Paul smiled at his kids, who were everything to him. "That's good. You'll love it." He then turned to his gorgeous wife with a slightly irritated expression. "If we ever get out of this traffic."

Their white minivan was sitting idle on the bridge exiting out of Jump City, residing in the horrendous traffic that was a daily occurrence. They were moving extremely slowly at first, but finally had just come to a hair pulling standstill.

"Oh quit whining, we'll be out of it before you know it." His wife, Penelope, said.

He kept his eyes on hers, but didn't register what she said. Even after being together for about a decade and a half he still found her strikingly beautiful. She had skin darker than his own, and her height was exceptionally short. Her naturally curly hair was something that drove him crazy sometimes. She was wearing thin V neck shirt that revealed a little cleavage, and blue jean shorts along with black and white converse. Damn did he love that shirt.

"I love you." Was all he said.

She gave him one of her tight, precious smiles. "I love you too. Clean your face, you have sleep in your eyes."

Paul looked into his mirror from the sun protector that the car provided. In the mirror he saw his reflection, a man of crystal brown eyes and brown hair that could be mistaken for black was looking back at him. His long nose was always the first thing he and other people noticed, but he paid no attention to it as he sent his gaze straight for his eyes.

_**BOOM**_

Paul immediately slammed the protector back up against the roof of the car and looked out the windows to see what the noise was. He gasped in horror.

To his right was another bridge, about a two football fields away from their own, and it was collapsing from the middle. It didn't look like it was merely falling apart; there was fire and smoke coming from the location of the descent. He looked on in shock as he saw cars and eighteen wheelers fall straight through the hole and into the oceanic abyss.

_**BOOM**_

Again he heard the same exact noise, but it sounded just as distant and in a different decoration. He looked to his left and saw the same thing as he did to his right. The bridge was blown up and several people were falling helplessly to their death.

"Dad?" Terry asked uncertainly.

"_Paul!"_ His wife screamed.

Paul threw his eyes forward out the windshield, and saw that his bridge was following the others; and fate would have them smack dab in the middle of it. The father frantically put the minivan in reverse, and did his best to swerve into an open space when he felt the ground the vehicle rested on begin to shake. Beginning to panic, he smashed the accelerator when he saw the construction of the bridge beginning to disappear before their eyes. Unfortunately, they weren't going anywhere. They were completely boxed in from surrounding cars and wouldn't get far enough in time if they were to go on foot.

Their car began to tilt downwards, until they were looking into the void of the deep blue ocean out the windshield. The women and children of the car screamed hectically, while Paul was too stunned to make any kind of reaction. All he could do was hold his wife's hand tightly and hold his breath.

The feeling of resting on a foundation disappeared, thus beginning their freefall to a heavenly kingdom.

* * *

Cyborg held his breath when he pressed the button, expecting that maybe his assumption of the bomb not going off was wrong. He held his tension until he saw the control box open, revealing the last thing he thought he'd see.

Inside was a green crystal diamond that glowed a deadly shade.

Kryptonite.

Cyborg and Batman looked up to the man of steel to see how he was taking this in. Superman took a step back and just looked at the geographical wonder with annoyed eyes. "I'm fine; as long as I keep a distance it won't kill me."

The metallic hero nodded as if to show he registered what he said, but he was actually deep in thought. It was more than odd that there was Kryptonite there, how could Joker have known that Superman was going to be there? He didn't even expect Batman there so there's no way he could've anticipated that Clark would be there. Right? This was beginning to make absolute little sense.

The half metal hero shook the thoughts away and brought his attention back to the bomb that he now held in the palm of his hand. The only thing that was standing in his way was that Kryptonic diamond. He removed the crystal from its place, and immediately regretted it.

"Huh?" He questioned when he saw that there were no wires inside of the shape, only a TV screen.

Almost as soon as the words left his mouth, a bright blue dome sprouted from the top of the bomb, and engulfed all of the heroes. It was a light shade that surrounded them, and it was transparent so they were able to see anything that happened outside of their new prison cell. It was about twenty feet wide and gave each hero their own fair amount of space.

Flash immediately came up with an idea as to how to get himself out. Without another moments thought he dashed into the blue wall to vibrate his molecules through it with the upmost confidence that this wouldn't fail. The moment he laid contact against the wall, however, he was electrocuted severely, and sent flying back. The speedy hero lied on his back for several moments with smoke rising from him. He finally sat up and rubbed his head, giving the dome a troubled look. Everyone began doing their own futile attempt at breaking out of the mysterious prison.

Lantern was sending a giant green fist into the wall, Manhunter was trying to telepathically bring down the whole thing, Batman threw a blade at it, and Superman just sat down as he began to sweat from the kyrptonite's presence. Meanwhile, Cyborg looked quizzically at the 'bomb', and the odd missing containments of its control box.

There were no wires to work with, meaning that there was nothing to send an electrical signal to its brain to have anything in it running. This bomb was a fake.

"Batman, we've got a problem." Cyborg said grimly.

"What is it?"

"This bomb is a fake. There are no wires or anything of that sort. There aren't even any electrical components to send messages throughout its mainframe if it even had one." Cyborg explained dismally. "Look at what's inside the control box."

Batman kneeled down to get a look at what the half metal teen was talking about, and realized he was right. All that was there was a six by six inch TV screen, currently displaying nothing but darkness.

"What do you think this means?" Cyborg asked as he looked around the inside of the dome.

Batman narrowed his eyes, and then rose to his feet.

"It means we've been fooled. This was a trap. And obviously its purpose was to keep us here." Batman said. "So he doesn't want to wipe out the whole city, but who knows what he can do when most of the heroes are out of action. You should call Robin and let him know."

Cyborg nodded and brought his arm to his mouth. "Cyborg calling Robin."

_Static_

"Cyborg calling Robin. Yo you there man?"

_Static_

Cyborg and the Dark Knight both exchanged worrisome looks before the metallic man spoke again. "Star. Are you there?"

_Static_

"Rae?"

_Static_

"… BB..?"

_Static_

Cyborg's eyes grew wider with fear in each name he spoke. He fell on his butt and put his hands on his head.

"This isn't good…" He declared.

"Good afternooooooooon Jump City!"

Every hero in the strange prison snapped their heads towards the fake bomb, which now had a TV screen that displayed the face of the creature that did this to them.

The Joker licked his lips and slicked his hair back as his mind bending eyes looked into their own. His eyes. Nothing but pure evil, and no matter how much Batman saw them, he could never get used to it. They just held so much malice and deception in them that it was difficult to not cringe at the sight. The green they held was just a cover up to the dark and maniacal things that are imagined behind them. Hiding evil was all those eyes knew.

"This is a, live, broadcast." He said plainly.

Cyborg's eye quivered in disbelief, weren't Beast Boy and Raven suppose to be watching him?

"How the hell did he get in front of a camera?!" Green Lantern asked harshly.

The Joker gave a malicious smile, almost as if he heard the green hero, and continued. "Today I just would like to let the, brilliant, citizens of this _brilliant_ city, that there are no longer any, party poopers to any show you wish to perform. Just take a look."

A picture of city hall came across the screen; it showed how some of the building was in ruins with a collapsed roof and destroyed doors. Its red bricks were strewn all on the ground along with pieces of the crushed ceiling. Even the statues of the Titans were blown to pieces.

Batman narrowed his eyes.

'_That's where Robin was going…'_

Another picture filled the screen; this time it was like the picture was taken from a blimp, showing off all the bridges that surrounded Jump City torn apart at the middle section. There were cars scattered and people running hastily away from the growing crevice. All the heroes noticed the dozens of vehicles, even some face down bodies that were floating on the water.

The silence that the heroes shared was growing more and more intense. So far they've seen the government of the city turned to rubble, and then they saw all possible exit routes of the city cut off. It couldn't get much worse, could it?

The Joker's sickening voice pierced through the strangling silence. "Ahh now personally, _this _one is my favorite."

Time stood still at the sight of the next picture. Every hero, except for one, shared the same expression. They all narrowed their eyes and clenched their fists angrily at the pain this monster was causing, for this was taking things to a colossal level. No matter how intimidated they were inside, they would not dare let anyone know it. Besides, most of what they were feeling was anger. This man had taken dozens of lives _before_ he came here, but now he was making this a grand performance. He wanted to put this on a prime time stage where everyone in America would take notice, and he was succeeding.

Cyborg's reaction to the picture was a mixture of multiple things. Hurt, anger, sadness, rage, loath, and most of all, horror. He gaped at the sight of a ravaged Titans tower.

The tower was missing chunks of its structure, and the smoke plastered on the windows would indicate that there were explosions that had engaged inside as well. He didn't care so much right now as to what happened to the tower, what happened to Raven and Beast Boy? They were supposed to be watching him, yet here he was broadcasting to the whole city.

His eyes twitched in misery as the Joker continued. "Now as I said before, no one can disrupt the party. So I encourage you to join in on the fun! It's not like anyone can stop you."

The Joker finished his announcements with a wink, then laughed as the screen vanished. The fake bomb diminished into several parts as it fell to pieces after the cutoff of the transmission.

Superman sat against the dome, looking disbelievingly at the metallic teen that had surely had his heart just now destroyed. His friends…

Cyborg leaned over and rested on his hands and knees, and wept softly. He was alone. Again he was alone in this cruel world. A world that never had, and possibly never will, understand him. Why did this always happen to him? Why did he always lose the things he loved the most? He couldn't bare a world without the only people who took him in.

He watched through blurred vision as his tears streamed from his eye, and onto the hard concrete ground. His pain was rapidly spiking, and it was becoming unbearable to hold.

_**Why did God DO this?!**_

With a head splitting scream, he brought his fists up and brought them down emphatically. His scream grew louder with each repeated slam as his armor began to tear off from the impacts. He didn't care.

Finally his pain consumed his heart, and ceased his burst of rage, so he could cry loudly. He moaned for his friends and all the madness that was going on in the city. He moaned for his mind numbing pain that was driving him insane. He moaned for the fact that he'd never see Robin and Starfire get married. And, most of all, he moaned for his loneliness.

The five other heroes looked on the miserable scene with sad eyes. This was something no one should go through; much less have a front row seat to. They threw their gazes to the ground and fought back their own tears; reluctantly trying to come up with a plan to get out of their predicament and save the city.

It's what they did; save. No citizen would ever know the struggles of the job, sometimes not even teammates, only the one doing the saving. The toll of such an occupation could be emotionally heavy. But to be a hero would mean to move past these and all struggles, to protect and serve the innocent. To defeat the wicked and bring order to society. And that's what they intended to do, even now with all the odds favoring the other side. They would save this city.

One way or another.


	7. On Our Own

Alright y'all, here's chapter six! I personally don't feel as good about this one than I did the others, but I actually have people following this story so I can't keep them waiting! Don't worry though I still edited and took care of it. I hope you all enjoy it though! Favorite, review, and follow!

* * *

Pain.

An immense amount of pain was shooting through the body of Raven Roth mericilessly. Something else was too… something that was warm…

She fluttered open her eyes and found her vision to be completely filled with… purple. Her face was stuffed into the chest of Beast Boy, who was laying on her unconsciously, or at least she hoped.

Raven attempted to raise her hand to shake the boy, but found she couldn't move the limb. She did her best to peer down at what the problem was, and saw that there was rubble on top of it. The empath sighed; she was stuck.

It was at this time that she noticed that the boy was heavier than someone his size should be. The empath struggled to wiggle her way up until her face was past his shoulder, so she could look over the body part to see what could be weighing him down so much.

More rubble. It appeared to be quite a bit as well.

'_He took all of that, for me?'_ She thought.

She felt ashamed of herself. It all had happened so fast... Joker was escaping, the ceiling was coming down, and she just didn't react in time to stop the rocky shower from totally burying her and Beast Boy. The changeling was the reason she was alive and she knew it. Raven could only hope that pushing a cubed piece of asphalt in a different direction from his head when it really came down hard was enough to repay him. She really would have a hard time with herself though if her green hero had gotten severely hurt.

With her eyes glowing white, she lifted the several pounds of rock that rested on the boy, and casted them aside.

"Beast Boy." She said, nudging him with her shoulder.

He didn't respond, but Raven wasn't alarmed at the silence since she could feel the steady rise and fall of his chest on top of hers.

"Beast Boy." She repeated.

Silence again.

"You asked for it."

Beast Boy's hair transitioned from its forest shade to a deep space black as the empath's aura got a grip on it. Raven then waved her finger, (still unable to move her hand) giving the boy's hair a rough tug.

That instantly aroused him from slumber.

The changeling shot his eyes open. "_Ow!"_

Raven gave the boy a small smile. "I tried to get you to wake up."

The boy groaned and lifted his upper body to rest on his elbows. He closed his eyes and ran his hand through his hair, then realized where he was. On top of Raven.

Beast Boy blushed madly as he looked into the drawing violet orbs of the beautiful empath. He would never tell Raven how much he enjoyed this; at least not if he wanted to keep his life, and he didn't have any intentions of losing it since he just about nearly gave it up earlier.

All hormones aside, he was taking sheer pleasure in the moment. He looked over his new girlfriend, and admired the beauty that radiated from her pale face. It always hurt his innocence to think that someone so delicate and well meaning could be destined to bring the utter destruction of mankind, he'd never understand what it'd feel like to carry such a bone crushing burden. By no means did she deserve such a harsh fate, but fate itself would have it that she would eventually disregard her father and in fact, save the very world she was meant to obliterate.

Raven was beginning to feel a bit uncomfortable at the stare the boy was giving. It wasn't the heartfelt expression that was beaming from his emerald eyes that was making her feel slightly awkward; it wasn't even the fact that she'd never done _anything_ like this. The only type of relationship she'd ever been in was with Malchior, if that could even be called one, and they'd never done something to this extent. No, it was the absentmindedness in his eyes that wasn't comforting. It was almost as if he was deep in thought and forgot where he was. She wondered if maybe this is what she looked like earlier when she had her foot in her mouth.

She broke the stare and looked somewhere else with her own blush. "Beast Boy?"

Beast Boy snapped out of his trance and let life fill his eyes again. "Yeah Rae?"

"You can get off now."

Beast Boy immediately shot up and gave his empath a hand in getting up from where she laid. After she was on her feet, he smiled nervously and scratched the back of his head.

"Heh. Sorry about that."

Raven gave him a faint smile.

'_Damn him for being so adorable.'_ She thought.

She quickly dropped her smile and looked around the wreckage that was once the watch room for interrogations. Piles of rock and rubble were scattered everywhere on the floor, making one hell of a mess. Raven threw her gaze into the interrogation room, and saw a much cleaner disarray. There were only a few big pieces of metal and asphalt lying on the ground from the outside explosion. In the center of the furthest wall was a large six foot hole which revealed a now dim sky. Raven narrowed her eyes.

They had failed.

They were given one mission. To make sure the madman didn't go anywhere and they couldn't do that. It was clear that the bomb hadn't gone off yet since they were both still breathing, but who knows what chaos he was causing at the moment. Raven decided that it'd be wise to inform Robin of the situation, if he didn't already know.

The empath reached inside her cloak to retrieve her communicator, and became a bit irritated at the absence of the device in its usual place. She rummaged around until her fingers finally brushed against a round and flat, jagged surface. Getting a grasp on the object, she pulled it out of her cloak and into open view. Sure enough, it was her communicator. It was as flat as a dime and about as useless as a pen that didn't work. She sighed heavily and closed her eyes; this wasn't good.

"Beast Boy." She spoke, turning to face the said hero.

The question she was going to ask him was already answered, however, as he held up his communicator that was torn into two different pieces. His ears were drooped as he looked sadly at it. He then threw his unhappy gaze at his girlfriend, who wore an expression of aggravation.

She bit the inside of her cheek as she began to think. They needed to do something quickly. She had no clue how long they'd been out, but it must've been several hours if it was almost dark outside so there was no time to waste. Robin had given them their assignments early in the morning since they didn't exactly have a good night sleep the night before. It had been nearly twenty four hours since they slept a whole night.

Raven groaned. "Let's take a look around the tower. Maybe someone has an extra communicator lying around."

Beast Boy nodded in agreement, then led the hasty walk out of the watch room.

The first thing they noticed when they walked out of the room was how smoky the corridor was. It was quite obvious that not only was the attack on the outside of the tower, but it occurred inside as well. Raven kept her deadpan expression, while Beast Boy kept giving worried glances at the smoke covered walls. Their home hadn't gone through something like this since Brushogun sent Psychotech to attack it; but even that assault wasn't as bad as this one.

They first approached Beast Boy's room. He opened the door and shot his head in, and immediately dismissed the thought of anything making it through the damage his room had sustained.

His bed was torn to shreds along with the blankets and sheets, which was done by his own hands, the structure that supported the bunk beds had crumbled into its own separate parts, clothes were also ripped apart on the ground, and his closet door was blown in. The room wasn't its green shade of color, but a new black and grey, presumably from an explosion that occurred inside the domain.

Raven grimaced. If Joker had done this to Beast Boy's room, whom the disturbed genius surely wasn't entirely too concerned of by himself, then more than likely all the rooms would be in similar shape to his. Still, she couldn't bring herself to dim the constant hope that resided in his eyes.

"C'mon. Maybe we'll have better luck in someone else's room." She said.

He immediately turned around, and followed the empath to her own room. It only took a few seconds to reach their destination, since their rooms were in the same hall.

In those few seconds, however, Raven debated heavily on something in her head. Does she let Beast Boy into her room? She knew that things would be… different, now that they were together, but still. Her room was a sacred place, a sanctuary to her so she could escape the endless noise of Beast Boy and Cyborg fighting or Starfire asking Robin to explain something for the millionth time. Or even just to get away from her new boyfriend.

Boyfriend.

The word was still entirely alien to Raven. This was actually the only, real, relationship she'd ever been in. As happy as she was to be in one, (though her face would say otherwise) it was still a whole new experience. She was sure that now her life would take a turn for the confusing. Beast Boy hadn't really ever been in a relationship either, but he still probably knew more than she did about such things that go on in one. She then thought that perhaps he would be like Robin in this situation, while she would be Starfire. Always confused, and him always being there to help her through everything with astounding patience. That'd be nice.

They stopped their pace in front of the empath's door, and Raven still hadn't made a decision as to what she should do. She sighed.

Almost as if he was reading her mind, Beast Boy spoke. "I can wait out here if you want Rae. It's no problem. Since it's your room and all." He said with honest eyes.

Raven looked into his sincere eyes with that rummaging going on in her stomach again before they kissed. She really appreciated how considerate he was being about her privacy. She thought that at first maybe he'd be jumping up and down to get into the room or he'd be asking for permission the second they left his, something that'd be inconsiderate of how she felt. He was actually being patient and was giving her room, however, and that pleased her, but made her a tad embarrassed for already having doubt in him. She now saw no problem in letting the changeling in.

"No, it's fine." She added. "Besides, you've already been in here more than enough times without my permission. You can come in as long as you don't touch anything."

Beast Boy grinned, happy at the empath slightly going out of her comfort zone for him. He knew he would be approached with the same challenge sooner or later; but he already decided that he would go as far out of his zone as he needed to for her.

The changeling followed the girl into her room with a grin still tainting his face. He observed his surroundings with a very cautious attitude; he had had too many unpleasant memories in this place and was determined to not touch anything. During his scan of the room he noticed how similar its condition was to his own room; charred walls, a destroyed mattress, and many destroyed items. The burned walls weren't as easy to notice however, since the room was already dark to begin with.

Raven paid no mind to the wrecked room, and made her way over to a crumbled nightstand that stood next to her bed. A communicator wasn't really on her mind; if she even had an extra one it was more than likely destroyed along with everything else in the room. There was something else she was looking for, and in some ways it was more important than a means of communication. She opened the drawer and moved pieces of clothing around until she found it, still intact.

Beast Boy watched his dark girlfriend pull out her meditation mirror with relief ruling her face. She gave a deadpan look, but he could tell that she was satisfied that it was still in one piece.

Raven turned to face the boy. "I don't have a communicator. The point of our rooms being destroyed is to make sure we have nothing left so I'm sure everyone else's room will be like this. We should just go and look for Robin now."

Beast Boy looked at the girl and agreed, quickly turning around to make his exit. He always trusted in her judgment, it was quite known she had the best of that among the team, even when Terra was a part of it for a short period of time. If she ever suggested the team do something as part of a mission, he would be more than trusting in her idea. Raven was much too smart for him, but Beast Boy actually was looking forward to her inevitable lectures and her sharing of knowledge so he could be smarter in his own right. Maybe one day he'd be somewhat as intelligent as she was.

She caught a look at her clock that rested on the same nightstand before she followed the boy out of her room.

**7:02 PM**

Raven scowled. She really had no clue what could possibly be going on outside, but it certainly would be more productive than staying in her room.

"Rae!" You comin'?!"

Raven looked at the now empty doorway and spoke at a monotone level, "Yeah. I'm coming."

She pulled her hood over her head, and let her boyfriend lead the way out on the roof.

* * *

Raven and Beast Boy had finally cleared the sea and entered the perimeter of the torn Jump City. They were immediately alarmed at the state of all the streets and buildings. It had looked like there had been a mass riot while they were gone.

The heroes touched down in the open view of a street, and looked upon the scene that lied before them.

Shops that rested on the road all had their windows smashed and had their walls tagged with graffiti. Some buildings even had fire brewing inside of them. The dark sky didn't help lighten the situation; it only seemed to emphasize how bleak everything looked and how hopeless the picture appeared. The heroes looked at the chaos with sorrow; knowing their luck, the whole city would be in ruins.

Beast Boy spoke with wide eyes. "What happened?"

Raven ignored his somewhat rhetorical question and stared down the intimidating scene by giving her own fierce look. "We should get moving."

Beast Boy shook off his feeling of shock at the empath's words, and complied immediately. They began to steadily walk in the middle of the road, since it appeared that there were no cars active, and the ones that were on the road had their mirrors destroyed and some even were ablaze. It was almost as if everybody just picked up and left in tremendous haste and stragglers stuck around to take advantage.

The changeling was looking at all the creepy props of the situation while thinking of a possible plan. They had no way of communication with their other three teammates, they had absolutely no idea what was going on, their home was totaled, and the city was likely in ruins. The situation they were in demanded a planned course of action.

He then thought of something, though it wouldn't put them on the direct road to salvation, it was the best thing they had if they weren't going to go to Robin's emergency plan yet.

Keeping their steady walk, Beast Boy spoke, piercing through Raven's own thoughtful silence. "Hey Rae, I have an idea."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "It doesn't have anything to do with mutants or giant robots does it?"

"Ha ha ha, very funny. No actually, it doesn't. Robin was going to city hall right?"

"Right."

"Maybe we should go over there and see what's going on over on that side of town. He could still be there or even just in the area since that's where he last was."

Raven turned her head to make eye contact with the changeling hero. It was a simple plan, but it still was a pleasant surprise that the team jester finally came up with something sensible. It also aggravated her to a small level that she didn't think of that, since it was such an uncomplicated arrangement. Undemanding or not, it was a good start and may give them clues as to what happened while they were unconscious.

"Alright," she agreed, "Downtown is just east of here so let's get go-"

"AAAAHHHHHHHH!"

The scream that ringed through the deserted streets chilled the hearts of the two heroes as they looked in the direction it came from. The woman's scream came from down the street they were on in between a pair of buildings; however they weren't sure of which ones. Beast Boy and Raven gave each other wide eyed looks, then took off at top speed towards the origins of the cry.

Beast Boy morphed into a leopard to get there in mere seconds, and Raven followed behind closely in flight. They were both astonished that there were actually not alone after all since they hadn't heard so much as a dog bark. It would figure that when they find out there were others they'd be in distress.

Beast Boy slid to a stop when the smell of sweat and testosterone became profound. Inside the alley was a light skinned woman and three other men wearing black clothing surrounding the poor girl; the changeling couldn't see their face since there was something covering it.

He quickly morphed into human form. "Hey!" The men on the left and right turned to face the boy. "Leave her _alone!"_

The man in the middle quickly turned around, revealing his Joker clan mask. "Beat it kid!"

The said man raised a handgun from his belt and fired it at the changeling without any hesitation.

Beast Boy froze and widened his eyes in horror and shock. It really was going to be that easy for that guy to kill someone? A kid even?

His animal instincts gave him the ability to easily slow down the bullet that was on a beeline for him, but it still came at rapid speed nonetheless. However, he couldn't bring himself to move. He was too shocked at the ease his death would come at. He helplessly watched the bullet approach his face faster and faster, until it stopped completely, suspended in the air and encased in black. It was about an inch away from its designated target until its momentum was abruptly stopped. The now black bullet turned around to face the one who fired it between Beast Boy's eyes, and took off for his leg.

The shooter cried out in hellish pain as he fell to the ground, cradling his now broken shin. His own blood curdling scream now filled the emptiness that rung throughout the block. Beast Boy and the other two masked men turned to find Raven with black aura around her hands and a white, angry, glow in her eyes.

"Are you just gonna stand there or are you gonna help?!" She demanded.

Beast Boy replaced his shocked gaze with one of steel as he eyed the other two men in the alley. They both let out an angry yell as they ran at the two heroes; one held a crowbar and one held a steak knife.

The man with the knife charged headfirst at Raven. The knife wielder was child's play for the empath; when he brought his eight inch blade down upon her she easily deflected it with a swipe of her hand, bringing up a shield. With a flick of her wrist the man was sent flying back into the alley, sliding to a stop on the concrete ground, tearing apart his black sweater in the process. She reached her hand out and retrieved the weapon with a dark aura. After taking it from the man's hand and into her own, she launched the sharp object as far away as she could away from the scene of battle. The man attempted to rise to his feet, but the empath reached her hand out and raised the man into the air, and hooked his sweater onto a nearby street light. Raven gave an amused look at the new street ornament, then turned her head to look for her green boyfriend.

The said boy had been easily handling his opponent, but was making things a little more interesting for himself. The man brought down his crowbar on the boy, but hit the hard shell of a tortoise instead of green skin. That same tortoise suddenly became a snake, wrapping itself around the man's torso and neck, hissing into his ear. The perpetrator's scream was similar to that of a girl, then a giggle as the snake was all of a sudden a mouse running underneath the man's sweater. Beast Boy morphed into a fly to make his way out of the tornado inside the criminal's clothing so he could finally breathe. Once out into the open, he changed into a donkey, facing away from the criminal, and sent him flying with a sharp, mind splitting kick.

The masked criminal was sent flying back into a dumpster in the alley, where the frightened woman still lied.

Changing back into human form, he gave his girlfriend an amused look; she responded with a soft smile. He then remembered the woman that had been originally attacked had still been where she was assaulted. The changeling took a peek inside, and found a woman of light skin shivering in her fetal position. She appeared to be in her late teens; she wore light grey jeans with white Vans, and a grey sweater. To go along with her outfit nicely, she had jet black hair that went to her shoulders; her eyes were bluer than the sea the island their tower resided on.

Beast Boy began to make his way into the immensely dark alley and past the man Raven had shot the bullet at, who appeared to be unconscious. He approached the woman slowly with his hands up, and gave her a warm smile to let her know that he was no threat. The woman appeared to get the message, as her body visibly relaxed and her expression replaced itself with relief.

"Th-thank you…" she said in a smooth voice.

Beast Boy knelt down to the woman with his smile still in place. "It's no problem. They didn't hurt you did they? Cause my friend over there will know just the trick to-"

_**BANG**_

The deafening gunshot sprang through the air, and flooded Beast Boy's ears. His warm smile fell to a dreaded frown, as his heart took a plunge down into his stomach. The changeling turned around to find Raven, face down on the concrete ground of the middle of the street. He heard a vicious laugh that sounded closer than Raven was to him; he directed his attention to where he suspected the heartless laugh was coming from, and found the man he thought to be unconscious, laughing at the girl and still holding his gun in the air.

The normally lighthearted changeling lost all sense of the word at the sight of the murderer.

"_**No!" **_he screamed with all the strength in his lungs.

He morphed into a gorilla and gave a blood curdling roar as he charged at the sick man. With no hesitation, he raised his fists into the air and slammed them down into the torso of his prey. Ignoring the cries of anguish the man was screeching, the changeling grabbed him by the neck and threw him as hard as he could at the brick wall of one of the buildings they were in between of. Ignoring the crack that came from the rag doll he threw, he sprinted towards the fallen empath with panic having a death grip on his heart.

He came to a sudden halt, and fell to his knees just in front of her. Tears were stinging his eyes as he gently turned the girl over to hold her in his arms, dropping her hood in the process. The lack of her hood revealed the life that was being deprived from her eyes, and her pale skin becoming an even lighter shade. The bullet had struck her in the left side of her chest; the wound was bleeding at a relentless pace and wasn't slowing down.

Beast Boy didn't know what to do. It was normally everyone else getting hurt and Raven doing the healing, never the other way around. To make matters worse, it wasn't like he could take her to the medical bay back at the tower. Cyborg wasn't there to treat anyone and Beast Boy didn't have the first clue on how to treat a wound that couldn't be handled with a band aid. His mind was racing with possibilities he could do; but each one was met with a failed conclusion.

"Oh man, c'mon Rae!" He said, propping her up more. "Please stay awake! I'll get you out of this!"

A gentle hand pressed against his shoulder, startling the boy to turn around. He found the woman they had saved standing over her with care in her freakishly blue eyes.

"Follow me. I can help her." She said, trying to sound as calm as possible to not make the boy more frantic than he already was.

The woman then took off for the building on the right that helped construct the alleyway in which she was attacked. Looking closer at it now, Beast Boy observed it to be an apartment building. He was desperate, if there was a chance to help bring the wound down enough for Raven to heal herself, then he would take it. It was his only hope.

He quickly rose to his feet with the empath cradled in his arms, and ran after the girl leading the way. It was a white building that appeared to be made of asphalt, and it displayed about five stories of rooms. The girl held open the white door for him to walk through, and led the way down the green tile corridor. She led the way into an open doorway of an elevator; Beast Boy hastily followed and watched as the girl punched the button labeled, **3**.

The elevator doors shut after what felt like minutes, and ascended up to the correct level. The doors opened slowly, and the girl once again led them. She ran to her right into a brown carpeted floor with red surrounding walls, and stopped after running for a very short period of time. In front of her was a door labeled **304**. The black haired woman gave some sort of code as she knocked on the door.

_Knock knock_

_Pause_

_Knock_

_Pause_

_Knock knock_

The door swung open to reveal a bald, middle aged man whose frown lines ran deeper than the wrinkles in his forehead. He gave Beast Boy and Raven a quizzical look with his hazel eyes before looking at the girl.

"Daddy," She started, "she's been shot. Please we have to help her!"

The man frowned; he appeared to be too good at that. "Carolyn you know better than to be bringing people up here!" He said in an upset whisper.

"I was being attacked dad! They both saved me! Please!" His daughter pleaded.

The man looked at the begging in his daughters and green boy's eyes. Today he had learned how to say 'no' to people in desperate need, it was all he had been doing to protect his family. He in particular was also not happy with these two and their friends for leaving the city in such a dire time. But there was something in the boy's eyes… he looked at the girl in his arms with such desperation, such panic and fear. It honestly made the man's heart hurt.

"Hurry up and get in here!" He said, waving them all in.

Beast Boy rushed into the old apartment room with his girlfriend in arms. The apartment was small; its walls were painted yellow and had three sections to it. One section was the living room, which was the first thing he saw when he entered through the door. The domain had a long couch facing a thirty six inch tv. Left of the living room was an opening that led to the kitchen which just appeared to be a small wooden hallway of pots, pans, and cabinets with an average sized table just outside of that small hall. To the right of the living room was a long hallway that had two doors on the right and two on the left. Beast Boy assumed the doors would lead to bathrooms and bedrooms, possibly even a closet.

Realizing he wasn't sure where to go, he turned back to face the man for directions.

"Put her on the table!" he yelled.

Without hesitation, he ran into the kitchen area and carefully placed the still bleeding girl on the table and shoved chairs out of the way.

After depositing his girlfriend on the table, he turned around to see the man running in with bandages and gauze in his hand. The man looked at Raven, and noticed her eyes were beginning to flutter and her pupils were going out of focus. He had to hurry.

"Where was she shot?!" He demanded as he tore a piece of gauze with his mouth.

"I-in the left part of her chest…" Beast Boy said, still frightened that this might end bad.

The bald man quickly entered the kitchen, then just as fast came back out with a rag.

"Here!" He said, throwing it to him. "Put pressure on that wound!"

Beast Boy did as he was told, and pushed heavily on the bleeding hole. His gloves and uniform were getting soaked with blood.

"Alright now move!" The father commanded.

The changeling quickly moved out the way, removing the rag, and watched as the man quickly wrapped blue gauze around her from her armpit to the right crook of her neck. Succeeding with impressive time, he began to wrap athletic tape in the same direction he wrapped the gauze. The rate at which this was being done was impressive. Beast Boy watched as the man panted from his quick reacting, unsure of what was happening. As if on cue, the man turned around to look the changeling in his emerald eyes.

"She'll be ok. There was an exit wound so the bullet's not in her." He said, starting to catch his breath. "Give her a couple hours."

Beast Boy sighed in tremendous relief, both at the fact that she'd be alright and that that time would be cut in half with her being able to heal herself. He rubbed his hand through his hair and shook his head in disbelief as memories of everything that happened flowed into his mind.

"However," the man said, breaking his train of thought. "you have some explaining to do."

"What's going on?" A black haired woman asked.

She was older, possibly the same age as the man, clearly the mother since Beast Boy could see some of the girl's traits in her. They had similar blue eyes and they were both short, and had the same face. Unlike the man, she had laugh lines, and no wrinkles on her face.

"Honey," The man greeted. "I think you uh, know who this is."

The woman looked at Beast Boy with cold eyes, then allowed her eyes to soften as she looked at Raven.

"And why is he here?" She asked softly.

"I brought them." A familiar voice said.

Their daughter came into view of the kitchen, appearing slightly intimidated that she would be scolded fiercely by her mother.

"They saved me," She continued. "When I tried to go get food for us these men attacked me and they were there." She finished, motioning to the heroes.

Jane looked at her daughter with understanding eyes. She appeared to be proud of her actions.

"And how did she get hurt?" She asked, this time to her daughter.

"She was shot."

Jane turned to her husband. "And were you able to help her, Jim?"

"Yeah, I think she'll be good." He said with a nod.

"Good. Come Carolyn, I'll show you the _safer_ routes for food."

Carolyn watched nervously as her mother walked out of the apartment. She gave the trio they were leaving behind an unsure look, then finally followed her mother out.

With the door slamming shut, Raven rose into the air and began to levitate, startling Jim in the process.

"No it's ok!" Beast Boy assured. "She does this when she starts to heal herself."

The explanation appeared to calm the man down some. He reached out for a chair to sit on, and rested his elbows on the table that was now free. Beast Boy did the same.

An awkward silence filled the air; Beast Boy was unsure where to begin since he had just met this man fifteen minutes ago. He didn't have to start anything, however, for the man spoke first; he appeared to know what he wanted to say.

"So where have you and your uh, friends, been?" Jim asked.

Beast Boy looked down at the table, unable to meet the man's eyes.

"I'm… not sure."

"What does _that_ mean!_"_ Jim bellowed, quite displeased at the answer.

Beast Boy's ears drooped at the man's volume. "Look sir, I don't even know what's going on! I don't know where any of our friends are actually! I've kind of been unconscious for the past eight hours, so maybe _you_ could fill _me _in!"

The man grew angrier and angrier at each word the changeling spoke, but let his fury die at his last sentence. Jim gave a confused look at the changeling hero that sat at his kitchen table, who was currently massaging his temples. He really didn't know? That's impossible… He really did seem to be clueless about everything though.

Jim looked at the boy grimly before he informed him. "We were attacked."

Beast Boy's ears perked up while his head rested in his hands. He picked it up and began to listen to the man's informational story. The changeling's ears dropped with every bitter detail Jim gave him about the time of the broadcast, and how everything went to hell after _he_ announced the vacancy of the Titans.

"Everyone just lost their sense of dignity and remorse ever since he said the mayor and you all were gone. It was every man for himself." He finished.

Beast Boy frowned, it was absurd at what man could do without authority. "And that's why you had a code at the door when your daughter knocked? And no one's on the street because they're all hiding?"

Jim nodded.

Beast Boy fell back into his chair. This was great. There were countless criminals on the streets and a madman was running the whole show. On top of all that, there were eight heroes missing.

"Have you tried making contact with anyone outside of the city?" Beast Boy asked.

"Yes. He must've done something with the satellite because everywhere I go I get no signal on my cell phone."

Beast Boy massaged his temples again. He figured that now was the time for the man to ask him some questions, after all he was at liberty to know everything that had been going on.

"Do you have some questions you wanna ask?"

Jim sat in his chair in thought. He wanted to make sure that he didn't have a single wonder by the time the hero was gone.

"Well," He started. "What's he doing here?"

"We honestly don't know. He came and said that he had a nuke that was ready to blow, but now I'm beginning to doubt that."

"Why?" The man said, trying not to show the alarm in his heart at the mention of something so deadly.

"I think he would've done it by now. I think his play was to take all of us out."

Jim sat in his chair and took in the theory. It certainly made sense, take out the top heroes and make life easier.

"Was it just you five?" He asked next.

"No. Us plus Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, and Superman of the Justice League."

"How do you not know where they are?"

"We were all given different assignments in different parts of the city."

"What was yours?"

"To watch him while everyone was out doing their own thing. It was hers also."

"And he got away?!" Jim replied through grinding teeth.

Beast Boy narrowed his eyes. "Yeah he did. Alright? Sorry. Could you have done a better job?"

Jim gave a frown. Beast Boy wondered how he didn't just constantly frown with the mass line of it he had.

As upset Jim was, he couldn't be mad at the boy. After all, he saved his daughter. That meant much more to him that anything else would.

After a tense silence at the changeling's slight outburst, Jim felt like he needed to thank the hero.

"Thank you… for, saving my daughter."

Beast Boy brought his emerald eyes to meet Jim's own hazel. "Thank you for saving _her_." He said with no hesitation.

Jim then remembered the despair that was in the boy's eyes when they were begging to come inside. It was the kind of look that Jim would give if his wife had been terribly hurt.

"Is she special?"

Beast Boy's ears jumped at the question, as a blush crept on his face. He not only found the question to be terribly random, but silly as well. However, one look at Jim's face revealed that he was dead serious about it. To tell a stranger his deep feelings for his girlfriend might prove to be a bit awkward, but he felt he was at no liberty to deny this man an answer.

Beast Boy looked at the floating empath with droopy ears. "Yeah, she is." He answered. "More than she'll ever know."

"It's weird," Beast Boy continued with sad eyes. "she's always doing the saving for us, I didn't know what to do when it came time to save her. It was terrifying thinking about her leaving us.

Jim gave a satisfied half smile at the boy. He was so smitten about the girl it once again, made his heart ache.

"So what are you gonna do now?" He asked.

Beast Boy reluctantly took his eyes off of his girlfriend as he spoke. "Go to the pizza place that's near here." Jim raised an eyebrow. "Robin said that if we ever were in a situation like this we should all go to a place we all go often; and that was the pizza place. It's an emergency plan he came up with."

Jim then nodded in understanding.

The conversation was brought to an end when Raven lowered herself back onto the table. She groaned and brought a hand to her head as she cringed. Beast Boy was behind her in a second, assisting her in sitting up.

"Take it easy Rae," he insisted. "I know you're a magic healer and all, but that still doesn't take away the fact that you got shot."

She groaned in response as she now fully sat up. The empath fluttered her eyes open to look around the kitchen, clearly confused.

"Wh-where are we?"

"In an apartment. This man saved your life. His daughter was the one that was getting attacked in the alley." Beast Boy informed.

Raven immediately put on her deadpan mask and looked at the bald man.

"Is your daughter alright?"

The man quickly nodded, "Yes she's fine. She's out with her mother right now. Thank you."

"Rae, if you're up for it we should get going. I know where we need to go."

"And where is that?" She asked, returning her look to Beast Boy.

"Remember when Robin said that if we were ever separated and had no way of communication that we should have a place where we meet up?"

Raven looked off at no particular spot in the room, reaching back into her memory to confirm the changeling's words. It appeared to strike her when she gave a sure nod to herself.

"Yes, I remember. I'm fine to go on. The pain is manageable enough to concentrate." She said plainly.

Beast Boy smiled at his girlfriend. "Great!" He turned his eyes to the hazel ones of Jim. "Well sir, if you don't mind, we'll be going. We're going to make this right even if we have to do it ourselves."

Jim stood up from his chair and smiled knowingly at the green hero and his girlfriend. "I know you will."

He stuck his hand out, and Beast Boy filled it with his own gloved hand that was stained with blood.

The couple made their way out of the room, then out of the building and onto the street again. Raven was glad the pizza place was only a couple of blocks from the building, she wasn't sure if she could sustain the concentration necessary for flight for long distance traveling.

"Sure you're ok?" Beast Boy asked one more time before they took off.

"Yes. Let's go." She said, raising her hood.

They took off in the night sky towards the pizza place they each loved, even Raven, and arrived in about a minute. The place looked deserted, and the inside looked ransacked. The duo walked into the light deprived restaurant and saw many broken plates, shattered tables, and pieces of dough strewn across the red tiled floor. The superhero couple was glad that they appeared to be by themselves, especially Raven; her chest still nagged her. It was also unfortunate to find that the others weren't there however.

Beast Boy led the way to a table that was still intact, and grabbed two chairs for him and Raven to sit in. He placed them underneath the table, and sat down simultaneously with his girlfriend. The empath lowered her hood, and rested her arms on the table as she locked eyes with the changeling.

"So, I guess we should wait here for a bit huh?" Beast Boy asked.

Raven nodded. "That would be wise."

Beast Boy grinned at her and that good judgment of hers again. He brought his hand up to rub his eyes, and Raven noticed the blood that had soaked into his glove. She frowned and looked at his other hand, which also was covered. Now that she looked closely, the stomach portion of his shirt was speckled with drops of blood as well.

"Beast Boy?"

He stopped what he was doing and looked her in her violet orbs again.

"Can I look into your memories?"

Beast Boy blushed slightly at the question.

"Huh? Uh…"

"I just want to see how the man helped me and I want to know what happened to the city. That's all." Raven partially lied.

Beast Boy raised an eyebrow. "Why don't I just tell you?"

His question was answered when Raven gave him a murderous scowl. Boyfriend or not, she was still capable of, and probably would, throw him out of a window.

"Sure go ahead!" He said, smiling nervously.

Raven put back on her deadpan look, as she stood from her chair and walked over to the changeling's side. Truthfully, yes she wanted to know what was going on with the city, but she was also curious as to how Beast Boy handled her injury. After all, she could've possibly died. Raven didn't know why she wanted to see, but it was bugging her so much she just had to cure her endless curiosity.

Beast Boy rotated his posterior clockwise so his body could face the empath. After doing so, she rested her forehead on the changeling's and laid her hands on his temples as she closed her eyes. The green hero could feel himself getting, drowsy, for some reason. He felt like he desperately needed to sleep, and that even if he didn't willingly let himself fade into slumber then his body would demand it from him. He closed his eyes, and drifted.

* * *

It all started to hit Raven like a tidal wave. All of Beast Boy's memories from recent events were playing rapidly, not giving her a chance to actually watch them. They were all scattered about his mind, and were clearly not in the correct order as they should be. She focused more, and the memories slowed down tremendously; they were at a steady enough pace for her to find the one where Beast Boy was approaching the man's daughter. She kept her concentration, but paid attention to the events unfolding.

When she saw herself on the ground, she felt so much… Panic. A mass amount of dread and fright had captivated her limbs, then a staggering feeling of anger tainted her heart. She mercilessly beat the man who had harmed this precious person. How _dare _he harm her!

She then took off to tend to her. She was all that mattered right now.

She knelt to her knees as she held Raven in her arms, and did everything she could to not let tears fall freely from her eyes.

'_Please God, don't take her…'_ Was all she thought.

Her fear was replaced with hope when the girl they had saved said that there may be a way. That was good enough for her. Before she knew it, she was waiting for the damn elevators door to open to let them in. Why were they taking so long?

Her aggravation was quickly waved when they did finally open, and she entered without hesitation. She quickly followed the girl out of the elevator when they reached the correct level, and watched helplessly as the girl spoke to a man. She wasn't listening to the conversation, she was busy looking upon the paler than usual face of her beautiful girlfriend. She remembered when she told her yesterday that nothing would be ok if anything happened to her; those words couldn't be truer.

They were soon in the kitchen and she was pressing down the wound of which the bullet left its mark. Frantically she silently prayed for her to come out of this alright, it'd be unfair to take her away so soon. The man finally came over and applied bandages to her, and she watched powerlessly.

'_How could I let this happen…' _She thought.

Relief washed over her as the empath rose from the table, beginning to heal herself. Everything was going to be ok…

"What does that _mean!"_

The man all of a sudden asked as she found herself sitting at the table, having a conversation with him. What the hell was his problem? Couldn't he be not such a prick when clearly someone almost died?

She then listened closely as the man told him about the Joker's sudden reign over the city. This was not good. She had no idea where any of the others were _and _the city was taken over by that crazy bastard and citizens taking advantage of their new freedom.

'_Animals.'_ She thought.

"Is she special?"

The question rung through her head once it left the man's lips. The answer was extremely easy. So easy that the question almost seemed stupid. The man seemed quite serious, however. She looked at her beautiful face as she spoke.

"Yeah, she is. More than she'll ever know. It's weird, she's always doing the saving for us, I didn't know what to do when it came time to save her. It was terrifying thinking about her leaving us."

She added on in her head.

'_And leaving me…'_

* * *

Raven snapped her head back as she exited the boy's mind. Beast Boy too began to stir from his unconsciousness; he didn't seem to notice that her hands were still on his face.

The empath was stunned. He was truly terrified for her life, and meant all of it full heartedly. It was clear to see that, he felt that he needed her. The word 'want' appeared to be an understatement after witnessing the fear stricken memories. How could she obtain such a profound love from someone? Why did she deserve it?

"Woah…" Beast Boy started, "That was weird. Did you get everything Ra-"

His words were cut off as the empath launched a fierce kiss onto the changeling's lips. He was caught terribly off guard, but soon returned the affection. She grasped onto his face perhaps harder than she meant to, but she couldn't help the feeling that was starting to control her limbs. A table nearby exploded into pieces, but she paid no mind to it. This boy had the tightest of grips on her heart, and she felt that he should know just how tight that grip was. Her lips pressed harshly against his own soft set, and she felt that this moment could never end and she'd be happy with that. She ran a hand through his soft hair as she deepened herself into his warm embrace, and she could feel her heart practically melting.

At the doorway to the restaurant, were two spectators smiling satisfyingly to each other. They held hands and watched the couple bask in each other's presence. As much as it pained them to interrupt, it had to be done.

* * *

Jim sat on the couch in his living room, wringing his hands worryingly. It had been a half hour since Carolyn and Jane left, and he hadn't heard a word from them since.

'_I knew I shoulda asked them where they were going…' _he thought.

As if on cue, the code knock rang through the apartment. He excitedly jumped to his feet and opened the door.

"Man, what took you guys so-"

_**BANG**_

Jim fell to the floor with a cry of anguish as he clutched his arm. He clenched his eyes shut as the nerves in his arm were set ablaze in a fiery pain. The pain was so mind numbing that he almost didn't notice the iron that was pressed against his temple a second later.

"I'm going to ask you a question and I want you to answer." A malicious voice said. "Where did the couple of the year go?"

With his eyes still clenched shut, Jim replied through grinded teeth. "Where's my family?"

Jim gasped as he felt rubber drive into his stomach without remorse, sending the wind out of him. With his pain directed somewhere else, Jim opened his eyes and saw the purple shoe that was rammed into him. The purple dressed figure kneeled down, and grabbed his face so he could look at him.

"One more time. Where. Are. They?" Joker asked.

Jim took a sharp breath at the sight of the monster. Those two heroes were possibly their last hope, so there was no way he was going to reveal the secretive information. If this was to be the way he'd exit the world, he would do it boldly. He also had a feeling that, he'd join his wife and daughter when he gets to where he's going.

"Up your ass." Jim whispered.

Joker gave a horrendous scowl at the man. The madman stood up and began to smack his head repeatedly, each blow emphasized with a yell. This wasn't supposed to be happening! They were supposed to be dead! It was his fault! He helped them!

He needed to be taught a lesson.

With another frustrated yell, the Joker returned his aim to the head of the bald man, and growled with the punishment that he gave.

_**BANG**_


	8. Reunion

Hello again! I think this chapter is much better than the last so hopefully you'll feel the same. Here it is! Follow, review, and favorite!

* * *

If Raven thought the last kiss her and Beast Boy shared was intoxicating, then the one they were embracing in now had her staggering. Their lips collided with each other with a gentle firmness that made Raven's grip on the changeling's face even tighter. Beast Boy was still too stunned to wrap his arms around her, but he still kissed her back. He knew the girl could get emotional, but she'd be a killer in the category of romance. He was definitely going to have his hands full. They both basked in the intimate glory for as long as they could before they were interrupted again.

"Ahem."

They both quickly pulled their faces off of each other's and looked in the direction the familiar voice came from.

"Glad to see that you're uh, ok." Robin said with a sinister smile.

Beast Boy and Raven were blushing so madly that their crimson color shined brightly through the darkness that flooded the restaurant. The empath adjusted her hood with the false hope that maybe it would hide her heavy flush. They stared at the other hero couple that was now standing before them, dumbfounded. The goal had been to meet with the others, but another time would have been nice.

"Oh this is most _wondrous!"_ Starfire gushed. "Our friends have found love!"

The alien princess flew over to the two heroes of the hour with glee to give them a bone crushing hug, but stopped suddenly at the sight of the heavily bandaged area that covered Raven's chest. Starfire immediately dropped her ecstatic heir and gave her dear friend a concerned look. Robin also dropped his teasing smile to give his own worried look.

"You… You have been injured?" Starfire asked.

Raven answered with a hard look to ensure her friends, and slightly herself, that pain was not an issue. "I was shot while we were both saving a young girl. The young lady's father actually patched me up enough for me to heal myself. I'm fine now but I'm still a bit sore."

Robin looked at the wound with a stern look of his own, then tossed his gaze to Beast Boy who had an expression of guilt. Robin narrowed his eyes. As different as they all were, they shared the common trait of feeling responsible for every bad thing that happened to one another. Not exactly the best of things to share, but at least they all cared for one another.

"Well," Robin started. "as long as you're ok, that's all that matters. How about you Beast Boy? Are you hurt?"

Beast Boy quickly dismissed his guilty face and replaced it with an assuring one. "No, I'm fine. Are _you_ ok?! We were gonna go to city hall before those jerks took us off track. The girl's dad told us that it was destroyed!"

Starfire nodded sadly. "He was correct. Robin and I were in the hall of the city warning the mayor about the bomb when it was brought down. We survived the fall of the building, but the mayor did not fare as well as we did…" Starfire looked at the ground from the misfortune of the last statement.

Robin placed a hand on his girlfriend's shoulder to ease her pain the best he could at the moment. He brought his gaze back to Beast Boy and Raven before he spoke.

"We were out the whole day so we have no idea what's been going on. We went to the tower and saw that it was destroyed and you guys weren't there… At that point we just fell on the emergency plan and hoped we would find anyone from the team, and that we did." He said with an evil grin, plotting the teasing that he would ensue to torment the changeling on his newfound love. After everything was back to normal, of course.

Raven gave their leader a death glare while Beast Boy scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. He knew he'd be in for it when everything became alright.

"Please friends, can you tell us what has happened?" Starfire asked.

The hero couple removed the expressions they previously wore and replaced them with grim ones. They both exchanged glances with each other, as if asking which one of them should break the news to their fearless leader. Whoever got stuck with it wouldn't exactly jump for joy in telling their leader that the city was under siege.

The honor went to Raven.

"Joker has taken away all laws to the city." Raven chose her next words carefully as she saw Robin tense up. "He broadcasted on all the TV's in Jump City that the Titans were eliminated and city hall was destroyed, so no one could stop them from doing whatever they wanted."

Robin immediately harshly asked the first question that was on his mind. "How did he get away?!"

Raven looked down at her boots. She still was a bit ashamed of the failure to their simple task.

"He had help… The police force assisted him in escaping from the tower." she said.

Robin scowled. They didn't need to be taking on countless citizens and scores of imposter police officers, especially when there was no way to tell who was working for the Joker and who was actually in it for the city. Suddenly, a thought struck him.

"What about the bomb?"

Raven brought her eyes up to meet his masked pair this time. "I don't think there is one. I think he would've pulled the trigger by now, especially with all of us being out of the picture as long as we were."

Robin processed the answer, then concluded that it made sense. It would've definitely been easier to detonate the device when there would be no one to stop him. If destroying the city wasn't his play, then what was? Robin always hated it when he was confused, it was a feeling that he barely felt but it was something he thought shouldn't happen.

"Then, where are Cyborg and the Justice League heroes?"

Raven frowned. "We don't know. There's no psychic trail here that belongs to any of them."

"And I can't pick up any kind of scent that belongs to Cyborg or Batman." Beast Boy added on.

Robin grimaced. He was sure that the four of them could clean the streets up easily if it was just rogue civilians, but he still needed to know if Cyborg and the newcomers weren't in trouble. Even if they could fix the city up without a teammate, he was still a family member and they needed him. The Justice League had their own territory that needed them, so it was essential to make sure they weren't hurt also.

"Have you tried getting a hold of him through the communicator? Both of ours got creamed when the tower got shell shocked." Beast Boy asked.

"Yes," Starfire answered, "we both have and were unsuccessful."

"How is that possible? The thing's freakin built into his arm!" The changeling protested.

"Something must be interfering with his signal. We need to go to the docks and see if he's still there. If he hasn't been here then something must've happened. Raven, can you teleport us?"

Raven gave a blank expression at her masked leader. "No." She answered. "The soreness in my shoulder won't allow me to concentrate long enough to transport us for such a distance."

Robin raised an eyebrow, trying not to display his displeasure at the information. "Can you even fly?"

"Not for long. I don't know if I can make it all the way there. "

Robin sized the empath up. Every member of his team was powerful in their own right, but Raven might be one of the stronger if not the. Her magic could virtually do anything they needed and had saved them from more than a few dire situations. She was extremely versatile and almost every mission would be a bust without her. To have her not at full strength would be a tough loss.

"She can hitch a ride with me!" Beast Boy declared with a wide smile.

Robin looked at his green teammate and immediately agreed, it'd only make sense. "Sound good Raven?"

The empath nodded.

"Alright then." Robin took a glance at the clock that hung above the pizza parlor kitchen.

**9:41 PM**

The leader narrowed his eyes at the time. It was getting late; they had to get a move on.

"Move out!"

Starfire hooked her arms underneath the armpits of Robin and took off through the pizza parlor door. Raven looked at Beast Boy, curious as to what animal he would change into.

He gave her a silly grin as he spoke. "Ladies and gentlemen, please keep all hands and feet inside the ride at _all_ times!"

Raven rolled her eyes as the boy's bones broke and reformed along with his torn muscles to match that of a pterodactyl. The empath reluctantly hooked a leg around the back of the prehistoric creature and wrapped her arms around the belly of the dinosaur. It was quite uncomfortable to lay on the boney surface of the extinct animal but she didn't really have another choice as to how else she was going to get to where they were going.

Beast Boy took off with a furious flap of his ancient wings, and rode off into the night sky. It didn't take long for them to catch up with their leader and his source of transportation.

Robin broke his train of concentration briefly when he noticed that the hero couple was now next to him and Starfire, but returned to his original train of thought after realizing it was them. There were several things on his mind, too many for a normal person to bare on their own. Lucky for his sanity, he was nothing ordinary. He was thinking about the possible whereabouts of his metallic teammate, Raven's injury, her new 'relationship', the corrupted police force, how they were going to take the city back and overthrow the Joker.

It was obvious that all of these things needed to be attended to, but there wouldn't be any type of planning without the knowledge of his _whole_ team, and currently they were short one so that would have to be put on hold. He would need all opinions on the mass raid they were to perform.

Robin searched the landscape they were steadily flying above, and narrowed his eyes at the familiar sight of the docks. It didn't take long for him to also find the warehouse where this whole nightmare started.

"Right there Star!" he yelled through the smothering wind.

The alien princess immediately complied and took a steep angle down to the shady building, making Robin's stomach melt. Beast Boy followed up with his own similar act by taking a nose dive straight down, giving Raven the intense urge to scream as her hood flew back. As he approached the ground, he noticed something unusual. Both heroes parked just in front of the rundown building, and let their stumbling occupants get off to inspect the odd scene.

A few yards in front of the building were a handful of officers, tied up in rope with their backs touching each others. They were all awake but appeared to be groggy, as if they had a mind splitting headache.

"I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that they at least came by here." Raven said monotonously.

Robin threw a fist into an open hand. "Joker must've tried to get the jump on them. Looks like they took care of business though." He then turned around, as did the others. Each of them gave the creaky warehouse a stabbing stare, good memories were not associated with this place.

"Stay alert. We still don't know for sure if there is a bomb or not involved and we don't wanna take any chances." Robin announced.

The team of teen heroes cautiously continued onward into the shaggy building with their leader taking charge. Raven pushed open the wooden doors with a thought to make everything just a little bit easier for the group. They walked in and gaped at the sight before them.

It appeared to be a light blue dome that had a ceiling that went about halfway to the height of the building. Inside it were the Justice League heroes and their own robotic comrade. They were all sitting down in some fashion and held bleak expressions; Cyborg wore one of misery and had it directed to the floor.

Beast Boy, jubilated at the sight of his best friend, took off for the mysterious prison.

"Cy!" He yelled.

Flash happened to look up and noticed the approach of the boy.

"Cyborg uh, I think your friends are alright." He said, still looking at the charging hero.

Cyborg brought his head up in disgust, ready to bark at the speedy hero for trying to give him hope in such a hopeless situation. His intent was distracted however, when he noticed a certain changeling sprinting for the dome.

The half metal man was elated, to say the least. He could've cried all over again, simply from sheer joy. Then he remembered what happened to Flash earlier when he made his own attempt at the wall.

"BB! Stop! The walls are-"

Beast Boy couldn't hear his friend pleading his impede, all he saw were the movement of his lips and he assumed them to be words of happiness. That's what he thought, until he ran square into the dome and felt electric volts shoot throughout all nerves of his body. Pain fired mercilessly through his whole body for a brief moment that felt like minutes. The green hero fried outside the prison for a couple seconds, until he finally fell to the floor.

He raised one hand up miserably, "I'm… I'm ok…" He then dropped the hand lifelessly as he fell into a brief state of unconsciousness.

Robin pinched the bridge of his nose as he shook his head. He didn't want to see Raven's reaction, but he sure did feel bad for her. What did she see in him again?

"Friends!" Starfire exclaimed to pierce through Robin's train of thought. "What has happened to all of you?"

Batman walked up to the front of the dome to stand out in front of the trapped group to speak for them all.

The outside heroes (except Beast Boy who was starting to stir) looked attentively at the six heroes inside the dome, and found no noise to go along with the movement of his lips. They each looked at each other quizzically.

Robin pointed towards his ear as he yelled slowly. "We can't hear you!"

Flash looked at the group of teens with a sad expression. "Uh Bruce, I don't think they can hear us."

Batman narrowed his eyes, agitated at what he was about to say in response.

"And we can't hear them."

Keeping his look on the confused teens, Flash pointed to his own ear and shook his head in solemn.

Beast Boy lifted his head to look at his friends confused due to his absence from the very recent events. "Uh, what's happening?"

"I don't think they can hear us either." Robin said. "This prison not only keeps people in and out, it absolutely cancels out all noise. We don't have a way to communicate with them."

Beast Boy returned his gaze to the trapped heroes, and brought it to his best friend. He appeared to be smiling wildly at the sight of his friends, Beast Boy understood he'd be happy but it was almost as if he thought he'd never see them again. Did he know what was going on?

Starfire widened her brilliant green eyes as an idea struck her. "Perhaps Raven can teleport into the domain and bring them out!"

Everyone turned their heads toward the empath to await her opinion on the suggestion. She didn't seem to be gung ho on it.

"I can't bring all of them out. The more people I teleport the more concentration I have to put into it, and my shoulder isn't healed enough to allow me to concentrate enough for six people. Even if I did I'd be exhausted and virtually useless afterwards. I can only bring one; even then I'll still be winded."

Raven looked at Beast Boy, and could tell his eyes were giving his response. They displayed his displeasure and yelled that there will be none of that.

Robin caught the look, and shrugged it off. He cared about the safety of his team too, but the idea was the best thing they had right now. It absolutely made him grimace when he had to put his team through any sort of pain, but it made things a little easier when they all displayed their comradely. Without a doubt or hesitation, he knew they would all be willing to make sacrifices for each other. As long as she could still be able to join in combat later, she could do it. Of course though, it was entirely up to her.

"Do you think you can get Cyborg out?" He finally asked.

Raven gave him a stern look of confidence. "Yes."

"Rae," Beast Boy protested. "Are you sure you can…"

"Yes Beast Boy." She answered monotonously as she met his shining forest eyes. "I'm positive."

"Good. When you're there, tell them about everything that's been going on. Ask them where the bomb is. Make sure they're alright also." Robin said.

She nodded at her leader then looked at her boyfriend, who still seemed to disapprove if she was going to be hurt.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine." She said with a faint smile, touched from the boy's care for her.

Beast Boy lived to see that smile, and immediately melted at the sight of it. She could ask him for the moon with that smile and he would put his soul into trying to get that damn thing. Her smile was going to be his drug, that he would constantly need a shot of.

Satisfied at his obvious freedom of tension, Raven raised her hood and phased through the concrete floor.

The heroes gave the sight an odd look, unsure of what was happening.

Lantern spoke for all of them. "Um, where did she-"

"Right here."

Flash nearly jumped out of his suit from the startle the girl gave him. Raven was now standing in the center of the dome looking upon all the faces of the heroes with a blank expression. She looked over at Superman and noticed that he was slumped against the wall of the dome, alive but appearing to be ill.

"Is he ok?"

"He's fine," Batman answered. "he's just feeling the effects of that." The masked detective added, nodding in the direction of the kryptonite.

Raven turned her head to look in the pointed direction, and was taken back by the shining stone. She had seen pictures and heard stories about what its appearance, but she had never seen it for herself. She actually thought that she'd never get the chance to see it since there'd be no reason for it to be around. It was actually almost beautiful.

She returned her blank gaze to the heroes. "How did you get in here?"

"It was a trap." Batman replied. "We came to disarm the bomb but got lured into this prison."

Raven raised an eyebrow, surprised at the master detective being fooled. "Where's the bomb?"

"A lot of it's at your feet." Lantern answered.

Raven looked at the ground and noticed the pieces of scrap metal that were covering a small portion of the dome.

"It was a fake. It got activated whenever I moved the kryptonite out of the way to start working on it, before I knew it was a dud." Cyborg said to quench her confusion.

Raven processed this, then nodded. Beast Boy had been right, there was no bomb. The disturbed man just wanted to run the city and destroy all social order while taking out the strongest heroes around. In her stomach she could feel her outrage bubble at the thought of him nearly succeeding.

Bringing herself to relax quickly, she asked her next question. "Do you have any idea what's going on in the city?"

Batman narrowed his eyes. He always seemed to do that when he was sharing knowledge. "We know everything. We saw the Joker's live broadcast when he gave it. He did a good job making it seem like there was no one around to keep order."

"For a while, there wasn't." Raven responded grimly.

"How _did_ he get out of your tower?" A curious Hal Jordan asked.

The empath gave a stone cold expression that'd make a dog run away to the green hero, this time in a more hostile way, not enjoying the accusing tone he carried that question with.

"He slipped through our fingers with help from corrupt officers it would seem."

"We should've suspected that Bruce…" An exhausted Superman said, gaining the attention of everyone. "Especially with that run in we had with those men that weren't going to let us in."

Batman squinted at his superhuman comrade. He wasn't looking too well. "I suppose you'll get us out of here now so we can start planning on a counterattack?"

Raven gave the masked detective the slightest of frowns, she was sure he wasn't going to be very pleased at what he was about to hear. She then wondered if he took bad news like her own masked leader.

"No." She said flatly.

Batman raised an invisible eyebrow at the empath.

"What do you mean no?!" Lantern demanded, clearly showing his displeasure whereas Batman concealed his.

"As you can see, I'm injured." She started with a hand gesture towards her bandaged shoulder. "I'm alright, thanks for asking. My powers require concentration and at my fullest only am I able to use my magic consistently. The wound takes away a great deal of my concentration, getting here by myself was a bit tiring, but I'd have to use much more of my mind to take all of you. I'm only in a suitable enough condition to take one other person, and Robin has decided that it will be Cyborg."

Everyone's eyes fell on the metallic teen, who wore an empty expression. It was a hard and piercing look that would make even Batman hesitant in battle. He appeared to be rehearsing some sort of plan for a certain green haired genius in his mind; something to perform for him once he got out of this rancid prison he was trapped in.

There wasn't much the group of heroes could say to protest against the decision. It was Robin's city, and his team was the only ones that could be able to do bring the city back to order, the decision made sense. Everyone grumbled inwardly at the thought of more sitting and waiting.

"Very well." Batman said. "It's best you get going."

Raven gave the master detective an agreeing nod and turned to her metallic friend. She was slightly taken back by the fearsome look that radiated off his usual joyful face. His anger was growing, steadily boiling in anticipation, and it almost made Raven wobble. The whole team wasn't exactly cheerful at what was happening to them, but she didn't sense this much emotion even from Robin. Cyborg could be emotional, certainly, but this was unknown territory for him.

Cyborg kneeled down for a brief moment to pick up the kryptonite that had been causing Superman to slowly wither away. He figured that the man of steel would greatly appreciate it if his stay in this strange prison would be as comfortable as possible. The android then stood up and threw his eyes at the empath in the dome. "Let's go." Cyborg said firmly to break Raven out of her trance.

Raven continued to gaze at her metallic friend. He was like a big brother to her, and it pained the empath to see him in such turmoil. She could only wonder what it was that made him so vicious at the moment; it'd be something to keep an eye on.

A black shadow was casted over the two teens, which then dissipated into nothingness. Flash looked over at Lantern, who was clearly unsure of what to think of the girl's powers.

"I bet that takes a while to get used to." Lantern said.

Robin waited for a patient second until a black ball of aura transitioned through the concrete floor, revealing Cyborg and a winded Raven. Beast Boy was immediately at her side once she fell to a knee, balancing herself with a hand on the ground as she panted. He knelt down with her and draped her arm over his shoulders.

"Are you ok Rae?" he asked with a very concerned look.

Raven hectically breathed in and out for a few more seconds before she finally regained control of her breath. Using her magic took a toll on her just a slight bit more than she thought it would. It had felt like she had sprinted from the opposite end of the docks to get here. Feeling the boy grab her arm gently and wrap it around however was almost hypnotizing to her body, as if his was demanding that she relax.

'_How does he do that?'_ Raven thought to herself.

She finally caught her breath enough for her to answer the overly sweet boy. "Yes… I'm ok. Just give me a few minutes."

Beast Boy gave his empath a worried look, then casted an upset one at his leader, who also had a soft expression. "Happy?"

Robin quickly scowled at the changeling. He didn't appreciate that hostility the boy suddenly threw at him. He of course cared for all members of his team; it wasn't like he enjoyed putting the girl through pain.

The Boy Wonder ignored the smart aleck remark and spoke to his magical teammate. "Are you sure Raven?"

With more control over herself, she gave an assuring nod. She allowed herself to be helped up by Beast Boy once she finally had the strength to stand on her feet. Raven surprised herself when she only gave a faint blush at the boy's embrace; it pleased her to see that she was becoming more and more comfortable with his muscle relaxing touch.

"Yes. I'm ok now." She responded confidently.

Robin gave her a soft nod, then a quick scowl at Beast Boy before he directed his attention to Cyborg, who somehow had been the forgotten man. The metal teen's hard look again took its effect, as it made the leader raise an eyebrow in surprise. What was his usually beaming teammate doing with such a murderous look on his face?

"And how about you?" Robin asked. "Are you ok?"

Cyborg looked at his leader, and realized that his face was probably betraying his feelings. Kind of. He had been jubilant to see that his friends were alive and well, but darkness still had a grip on his heart for the disturbed genius that did this to them. He had made this whole nightmare well over personal whenever his past was brought up, and making him think that his family was killed. He knew the thoughts he was having weren't healthy ones and weren't things a hero like himself should think, but it really was hard not to.

"Yeah." He answered coldly. "I'm fine."

The whole team joined in unison in giving their teammate a concerned look. The hardened expression his best friend wore saddened the changeling, he hated to see any of his friends not feel well. Making sure that Raven could stand on her own before he let go, he took a couple steps towards his friend.

"Are you sure man?" Beast Boy asked, looking up to Cyborg.

The half metal man looked down at the green boy below him. He thought he'd never see that stupid face of his ever again.

The frost bitten face he wore finally began to chip away, as a smile crept ever so slightly on Cyborg's face. "Yeah. I'm ok."

Beast Boy gave his own grin. It made him happy to not only see that his friend was alright, but also that his smile was sincere.

Starfire stepped forward to help make her presence known, since it appeared that she was forgotten amongst the anxiousness. "Friend Cyborg, I am relieved to see that you are well. But shouldn't we devise a plan on how to regain control of our beloved city?"

Robin once again put his determined look back on. "Starfire's right. Now that we have the whole team back together we need to come up with a plan to take down the Joker, and take back the city. But before we do that," He turned his gaze to Raven. "Raven, come with me outside."

Raven wasn't given a chance to reply as the Boy Wonder quickly turned his back on the team and started his way out of the warehouse. Confused, she turned to her boyfriend to see if he had any idea what was going on. He clearly didn't when he gave his own confused shrug.

She rolled her eyes and followed their fearless leader.

The brisk evening air hit her face like a wave of happy emotions. It was refreshing, and much more comfortable than being inside the stuffy warehouse. The night sky was beginning to thrive tremendously, and had it not been for the lone light that towered over the docks she wouldn't have known where Robin had went.

Raven still wasn't too sure of what he was doing, until she came to one conclusion as to where his destination was. The empath followed the boy and tried to keep up with his quickened pace to meet him at the group of men that were bounded.

The Boy Wonder stopped in front of the men before he started what was on his mind for his teammate to catch up. She was going to be a vital part of what he had planned. He just hoped that her injury wouldn't hinder her. Even if she wasn't injured though, he didn't like what he was going to ask her to do.

Raven finally caught up with the boy and looked curiously at the scene again. One man appeared to be more alert than the others, and the empath knew that he had the honor of falling prey to Robin's relentless demeanor.

The masked hero kneeled down to eye level with the officer, and began his interrogation. "Tell me where the Joker is." He said forwardly.

The phony officer's face was masked, but he directed his head to the boy to give the implication that he was making eye contact. He merely laughed at the question.

A frustrated Robin roughly grabbed the protective helmet the supposed officer wore and jerked it, hoping to daze the man. The masked leader was pleased to hear the groans of discomfort from his aggression.

"One last time." Robin said fiercely. "Where is he?!"

The man shook off his disorientation and refocused on his interrogator. He did his best to suppress his giggle as he answered. "I don't know." He said in a playfully slurred manner.

Robin narrowed his eyes at the now chuckling man. He was hoping he wouldn't have to do what he planned on doing, but it had to be done.

The fearless leader let go of his grip on the disturbed man and stood tall. He didn't meet Raven's eyes as he spoke.

"Raven."

"Yes?"

"I need you to do something."

Raven raised her eyebrow. What could he possibly want her to do? Play the good cop?

"What is it?" She replied.

"Remember that thing you did to Doctor Light?"

Raven frowned.

'_Oh…'_ she thought.

"Yes?" She answered hesitantly.

Robin cringed at the tone she responded with. The girl was much more innocent that she made herself seem. He wished there was another way he could get answers, but right now there was nothing else that'd be effective.

He then turned around to meet her eyes, which were still hard. The Boy Wonder wasn't fooled by the cold expression; he knew she was hoping that he wasn't going to ask the inevitable. "Think you can do it again?"

There was a long, uncomfortable silence. The girl was quite unhappy at her leader trying to get her to use her… darker, side to get information. Such a thing was not something that could be let out whenever she pleased. However, she knew that her demon side would be the only way to get any type of answer from minds even similar to the Joker. Scaring it out of them would be the killer. Not only would it scare them, but it would also scare her. She could feel her demon side yelp with joy inside her soul, celebrating at the thought of being free, even if it were going to be for a few moments. Her feelings of excitement were easily shoved down, since she knew they were the feelings of the demon instead of her own.

Hesitantly again, she agreed. "Yeah… Yeah I can do that."

Robin couldn't feel worse. He had asked a lot of the girl and it was weighing on him heavily listening to the uncertainty in her voice. He at least had to know that she would be physically alright while going through the process.

"Will your chest be alright?"

"Yes." She answered coldly. "Unlike my powers, this will take little concentration. That pinpointed thought will be used on releasing my… other side and to maintain a grip on my sanity while it's happening."

Her fearless leader gave a faint sigh of relief. At least he'd be spared of asking for more physical harm. Still though, sometimes mental scars could run deeper than any flesh wound could. That was something every member of the team knew far too well.

"Alright." Robin responded.

Raven took her gaze off of the Boy Wonder and onto the man who was clearly curious as to what they were talking about. The counterfeit officer looked up at the empath and saw that her eyes a frightening white glow. Underneath his helmet, the officer displayed a look of shock, then an expression of fear as he felt a furious tug at his foot. He casted his wide eyes at the foot that was being pulled and found nothing causing the force. Wildly confused, he was pulled again but this time out from the rope that bounded him.

The man found himself on his back on the concrete ground and looking into the night sky. He quickly attempted to scramble to his feet to make a dash anywhere but where he was, but the futility of his effort was swiftly displayed when his feet were taken out from underneath him.

Lying on his back, he lifted his head up to see what was going on when he felt him being pulled again. He cried in sheer terror when he saw he was destined for a hellacious black void that resided in the girl's robe for some reason. Her cloak was spread open, revealing who knows what as black tentacles pulled him in mercilessly. With despair pumping madly through his veins, he looked at this girl who was a 'hero' to see what in the world she could be thinking.

He yelled in pure fright at her face. Her eyes were of four red orbs underneath her hood, and she had a maddening smile to compliment the evilness that radiated from those eyes. The expression that shone from her gave the impression that she felt absolute joy at what she was doing.

The bogus officer darted his eyes towards the nothingness that she somehow held within her, and couldn't understand what was happening. He was mere inches from having his foot enter the infuriatingly black shadows, and he could hear what sounded like whispers. Hushed voices that were exchanging words at a rapid pace, then an agonized scream stabbed through those shadows. The disturbed man flinched horribly when a wild laughter followed the blood curdling shriek. Was he going through the front door of Hell?

Robin simply watched the violating scene; even though it was excruciating to watch the man slowly have his already slim sanity grinded into dust. It was the least he could do for asking Raven to do so many strenuous things. Even though he couldn't see the man's face, he was certain that his expression would hold the meaning of fear itself. Again, he was glad that the half demon was a teammate. She'd have the whole team off to Arkham in the mental ward crying themselves to sleep if she ever were an enemy.

Excruciating was an understatement to describe the man's mental distress. He was trembling wildly as his body slowly entered the deathly black void. The whispers had become unreasonably louder, and he could swear that he felt arms wrap around his legs. His stomach was aching horrifically, and he felt the intense need to vomit from the mind blowing terror that was raping his mind. He couldn't take it anymore, he'd do anything to get out of this.

"_**Wait!**_" He screamed.

Raven immediately dropped her smile and ceased her drag with half of his body had already sunk inside.

Robin's expression didn't change, however. He merely shifted his eyes over to the man while maintaining his hard look.

"He's at the city mall! I swear he is!" The man began to sob horribly. "Just _please _get me outta here!" He begged.

Robin stared at the crying man with a face that lacked remorse. The truth was, however, that he felt cruel for stimulating what had been done. He continued to chant to himself that it was the only way as he looked upon the broken counterfeit officer. It was difficult to sense a lie coming from him, since his face was covered in his space suit like mask, but Robin was fairly certain that his pleading voice held nothing but honesty. The thought of death could do the damndest things to people.

He raised his eyes to the empath, who now was flashing her four eyes at him. Her expression was blank, so he knew that she was consciously there, but it still was nerve racking to look at her in her current state.

"Let him go." Robin finally said.

Raven kept her position for a few seconds, fighting with her demon side for complete control once again. Her four eyes slowly morphed into two violet ones as her cloak began to fall limply. The man's lower body escaped the mind bending void and he too, went limp as he laid on the ground sobbing. The empath did her best to ignore the shattered man's cries, as she slipped him back into the rope with her powers. His head hung lifelessly as he still tried his best to fathom what he just experienced.

After making sure he was tied up, Raven quickly turned around and started an even pace back towards the warehouse.

Robin couldn't bare his guilt anymore. It was beginning to eat him alive and he just had to apologize, no matter how useless it'd be since the girl would more than likely catch the apology and throw it to the ground.

"Raven I'm really sor-"

"It's alright Robin." She cut in sharply. "I get why you did it. Just don't tell Beast Boy."

The Boy Wonder watched the half demon continue to make her way back to the warehouse with his guilt still throbbing. He hadn't even stopped to think about how Beast Boy would feel about having his new girlfriend bring out something she wasn't proud of. This would have to be another thing that would be pushed to the side in his mind.

Robin quickly collected himself and followed Raven to the warehouse. He entered the building and met the curious eyes of all of his team, and including a few members of the Justice League. He couldn't bring himself to look in the direction of Raven, who had gone to the side of Beast Boy. He didn't want to see the evil glare of the changeling if he was giving one, and if he wasn't then Robin didn't wish to give the implication that he should be handing one out.

He got in the middle of the huddled group and turned to face Cyborg. "Cyborg. What time is it?"

Cyborg immediately complied and brought his forearm to his face to get a look. Not even a second later he had an answered. "Ten twenty-seven p.m."

Robin wasted no time with his announcement. "Alright team. Listen up. Get comfortable because we may be here for a while. We need to come up with a plan to take back the city, round up all of the rogue civilians, and finally hold the Joker for _good._ Understood?"

Each member of his faithful team gave a strong nod to their leader. They were each prepared to travel to the ends of the earth, or the end itself with each other, whichever came first didn't matter to any of them.

"Alright. Let's get started."


	9. Interlude

And I'm back with another! I'm glad some of you enjoy the story, I personally don't think it's bad but of course like everything else there's always room for improvement. Well anyways here it is! I call this one interlude because well all my chapters have been long as crap, and though this isn't too short like an interlude it's still technically an interlude. Our story is approaching an end in the next few chapters!

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Robin nodded his head firmly at the laid out plans his team had carefully formed. He was more than pleased with how well their minds gelled, and how concrete their plot of retaliation appeared to be. The leader was more than glad to finally have something that was even close to being a real plan. It must have been their second dozen time attempting to put something together to take back the city. Each and every time they had composed something that seemed solid enough to be effective, someone wisely brought up even the slightest glitch to it.

To take down the Joker would mean that there would be no loopholes within any scheme their brilliant minds devised; even the smallest opportunity for failure would be intolerable and it'd be back to the drawing board. Throughout everything that has happened to them, the diabolical genius was just always a step ahead of them. There could be no foreseeable mistakes, and there couldn't even be a hint of doubt in any form of action they'd take.

The teen heroes however, grew impatient with each planned that seemed flawed. They felt that it was well past the time to show that green haired bastard how unwilling they all were to fading away, they had proven this before many times and they would prove it again. It was time to repay the creation of relentless nightmares the madman produced and it was time to repay him for the damage he had caused to the city. This time there'd be no way for him to weasel out of anything, and there would be no one to help him.

He looked upon the determined faces of all of his friends who had grown to be his family; the people in his life that were truly to die for. "Can anyone see what's wrong with what we've got?"

Robin sprayed his eyes around the contemplating faces of the group that was huddled around him. They each zoned out and went into a tunnel vision mindset to pick out anything, even the slightest flaw that would hinder the success of everything. The leader assumed that there was nothing wrong with what they had when everyone appeared to bring themselves out of their trances and back into reality.

"Are we sure?" He asked once more.

The domino effect of assured smiles and nods started from Beast Boy and waved to the girls on his right, ending with his very best friend on the left. Their leader gave a famous, faint cocky grin at them. He'd either die with them than suffocate from the ache of living without them.

"Alright." He turned his head to look at his metallic teammate. "Cyborg, time?"

The half metal man brought his forearm to his face to complete his given objective. It took a bit of an effort to conceal the yawn that was begging to be released as he read the time aloud.

"Eleven-thirty three p.m."

Robin nodded. The Joker more than likely somehow knows they've all cheated their deaths, and probably has devised something to counter that. And that, was exactly what Robin was hoping for. They'd certainly have the advantage this time.

"Then let's move out." He commanded as he rose to his feet and walked over to the captive heroes in the dome.

Batman noticed his approach, and rose from his sitting position to look down on the shorter hero. He had been giving the other heroes the gist of everything the boy and his team were discussing for the past hour thanks to his skill in lip reading. Each Justice League member was always pleased with a plan that they devised, then were equally impressed whenever one of the teens came up with a flaw to it. Flash couldn't count how many times he said, 'I never would've thought of that', whenever an intelligent idea or good catch would be casted. They all thought, at least once, how great of an addition they'd be to the league.

The Dark Knight, however, had his own thoughts that he decided to not share aloud. Unless they were important to the team, what went on in his head usually stayed there. Even if they were thoughts of how great a leader his former apprentice had turned into. He would not dare show his pride that was beginning to swell inside of him to the others.

With the knowledge of his old master's ability to read lips exceptionally, Robin spoke blankly to the dome with an expression that matched his tone. "We're heading out."

Batman nodded at the Boy Wonder. He as well spoke into the blue transparent walls with a lack of tone. "Good luck."

The old apprentice gave his master a cocky grin. Batman couldn't remember the last time he had seen that certain smile. With determination flowing through his veins now, Robin turned around and led his team out of the creaky warehouse with an heir that would make others around him think that he was unbeatable. His team gladly followed their leader into battle for a countless time.

Bruce watched the boy and his team make their way out with his pride again beginning to engorge. Richard Grayson had had a past very similar to his own; parentless and alone until taken in. For Bruce, it was Alfred who had taken the burden of practically raising him after he witnessed his parents' murder. The torch was passed down to Bruce whenever it was his turn to take someone in. An eight year old Richard Grayson who lost his parents to an 'accident' that was composed by a gangster. Bruce showed the boy manhood at a very early age, and so the Boy Wonder learned right from the start that he had to grow up fast. There were some things that his apprentice had learned from his master that Bruce preferred he didn't, but still, he appeared to be alright without him.

Lost in his nostalgia, Batman could barely hear Superman barge in on his trance. "He turned out to be alright on his own."

Batman looked at his teammate who was wearing a knowing smile disbelievingly, shocked at the coincidence of the question. His disbelieving expression, however, was easily masked. He turned his head back to the open space of the warehouse that was now rid of teenagers. Bruce was always one to make sure that he never display his emotions, it was just a force of habit to win several psychological and physical battles as well. Perhaps though, it couldn't hurt to show even the slightest this time.

"My thoughts exactly." He said with a satisfied smile.

The city looked like a warzone.

It strongly resembled a city that had been caught in the middle and destroyed during a battle between two opposing countries. The streets were littered with trash, burning cars, and even with an occasional body lying lifelessly on the cold pavement. Shop windows were blown in from gunshots and thrown objects, store shelves held nothing but dust particles, and townhomes contained remnants of now vacant living rooms. The sidewalks would have an occasional blood spatter painting the ground, and none of the Titans even considered looking down any alley, for those shadowy realms were sure to hold much more unspeakable things.

They had chosen to fly at a very low altitude once they had exited the warehouse, recognizing who they were would be several times easier if they took flight among the birds when they were all supposed to be dead and the same went for taking Cyborg's T car, it'd be too easy. It was unfortunate that the teen group had to be virtually grounded; the sky would've dimmed their vision from the heartless acts that had taken place in public view.

The city mall was on the east side of town, and they were far on the opposite end of the spectrum. Flying through in dashing speeds would get them there in no time; the trip was only made quicker with their steel like determination that had flowed in their veins, and the need to get out of the streets to not look at the ungodly things that had taken place.

In and out of alleys and across streets a green pterodactyl with an android riding it, an empath, and an alien princess carrying a passenger darted, and they were now about halfway from their destination. The great expectation of the battle to come was beginning to stir in their stomachs, and they could hardly wait to deliver what the psychopath had coming. Some more than others.

Starfire was brokenhearted at the disaster that had struck their beloved city while they were all gone. Even though she thought that the people of this planet were strange indeed, this was still her home and it pained her terribly to see it tumble down without order. It made her question how cruel humans could be if there was no authority to tame them. This was all _his_ fault. She wasn't an expert at the art of torture, but she surely could think of something to do to take her outrage out on the monster. After living on earth for many years, she had grown distaste for fighting or the harming of others, but she knew what had to be done if the occasion arose.

Raven and Beast Boy shared similar thoughts to one another, since they both had somewhat gone through the same torment with each other. They both had hellacious visions of losing one another, and the Joker had made it seem that they had completely lost their friends forever. Beast Boy's road had been a bit more treacherous than Raven's however. Twice he thought he'd lost the girl of his dreams, both times in his arms. Raven was much more capable of thinking murderous thoughts than Beast Boy due to her demonic heritage, and the other side of her was scratching and clawing to break out and roam. There were so many torture techniques that her other side knew of that would fit perfectly on the psychopath, and the very thought of his maniacal scream was making her heart race unconsciously with pleasure. The worst Beast Boy could think of was simply pounding on him as a large animal, a gorilla perhaps would suffice.

Their metallic teammate was also letting his darker side explore a little more freely in his mind than he'd like to admit. So far, the madman had managed to deceive Cyborg's sense of reality twice into a twisted one for kicks, and he had harmed his family severely enough to where they possibly could've been gone forever. He was going to get what he deserved, one way or another. His malicious intentions would be repaid, for the android had his own evil thoughts sprouting from their seeds. The thought of killing that green haired madman had crossed his mind more than once, but that'd be absolutely out of the question for Robin. No matter what the circumstances were, unless absolutely necessary taking another life would be intolerable to his masked leader and would mean sure abolishment from the team. Cyborg had already been torn earlier on the thought of losing his friends at someone else's hands, he didn't want to be the one responsible for taking them away from his life. Still though, he'd give something brutal to the Joker if he got a chance. He'd make sure of it.

As for the Boy Wonder, he probably had the cleanest mind out of all his teammates and he suspected so. His team had been through so much that it was surely taking a toll on their emotional status; he could only imagine what could possibly be going through the minds. Well, perhaps he didn't wish to know what some in particular were thinking. Because of the mental weakness his team was experiencing, it was imperative that he keep as neutral a face as possible. Much like an insect hive, the swarm would go mad without their queen… Perhaps not a good way to put it but accurate nonetheless. His main concern of what he was going to do with the Joker was to get him in cuffs and back in Arkham, only then he'd be able to relax. He also made a small mental note to keep an eye on a couple of his teammates to make sure they remember the objective of the mission and don't let their emotions interfere. His train of thought was broken whenever the Jump City mall came in sight.

"Alright, does everybody remember their role?" He shouted to get his voice past the wind that they were piercing.

"Yes Robin." Starfire answered.

"Yep." Said Raven.

"Of course." Cyborg briskly answered.

Beast Boy just made a sort of squawk since pterodactyl's weren't too known for their knowledge of the English language.

Robin nodded in satisfaction. The time to act was now.

"Then get ready."

The women and pterodactyl landed with grace in the large parking lot that could certainly be used for a concert, almost a hundred yards away from the Macy's they were set to walk through. It made sense for this to be Joker's hideout; there were endless stores he could hide in and it'd be easy for him to make his escape while they were searching for him. But they couldn't afford to let that happen now could they?

They started their determined pace towards the large building until they saw a man with a Joker mask come out of the door. He merely walked casually in their direction with no alert to him, and didn't even flinch at their sight.

The teen group stopped their approach and shot a single eyebrow at each other, unsure of what to think of this.

The team couldn't see it, but that schizophrenic man underneath the mask gave them a vicious smile that'd make the Joker proud. This was going to be good. He put his hand in his mask and brought his finger to his lips as he let out a whistle that would've made anyone near him deaf for a brief moment.

The Titans still stood their ground and watched the unfolding of the intimidating scene that was taking place. Scores, scores, and more scores of men dressed in black with Joker masks piled out of the small Macy's door. They all exited with their eyes murderously set on the group of heroes that was threatening to ruin the anarchy that their new leader had installed into the city.

The said heroes stood their ground, however, and gave their own glare that matched the blank expressions the masks gave off. Cyborg's cybernetic eye quickly guesstimated there to be about two hundred to three hundred men just itching to behead the team he had grown to love. Despite the overwhelming number, he was not fazed, none of them were.

Robin gave the assembly of crazed men an extremely, satisfied smirk. For once they had been a step ahead of the evil genius.

He spoke to his team empath without facing her with an anxious tone. "Are you ready Raven?"

If he had turned to face her, he would have seen the black, ominous glow that was illuminating from her pale hands. Her eyes hadn't obtained their white color yet, they were still violet orbs, but those eyes held resolve, and a hint of vengeance.

"More than you could imagine." She answered blankly.

Robin's smirk grew into a small, victorious grin. "Good. Go."


	10. Retaliation

Alright guys, here's the second to last chapter. That's right there's only one left. I'm mildly thinking about putting up an epilogue but I'm not entirely sure about it. Either way the next chapter is the end of this story and I think I'm going to end it tonight. It's already written and ready to go. So enjoy this one and stay tuned for a couple for hours! Review and favorite!

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"Whoa… What the hell?" The Joker clan front man asked himself in absolute astonishment.

He couldn't wrap his mind around what happened to the teens they were surely about to kill. They were all standing a good distance from them, then all of a sudden a white light took their places. It was like a giant light bulb in the middle of the parking lot, but it wasn't overwhelming to the human eyes. It was small enough to appear to be a large star that was at ground level, deathly white yet beautiful at the same time, despite the eeriness.

"What do we do?" Someone behind the front man asked awkwardly.

"I… don't know." He responded with something brewing in his stomach. Something obviously wasn't right.

After he answered, the light began to ascend into the night sky at a very slow speed. The pace of the tiny light was unbearably deliberate, and it was making all of the men more nervous than they cared to admit. The way it shone through the blackened sky like the street lights surrounding it was brutally intimidating to the unstable and weak minds of the corrupted that stood before the heroes. It captivated the attention of every single man that had seconds earlier been itching to tear their blades into the children. What could this ominous illumination possibly be?

Robin watched the team empath rise into the sky with the most satisfying of grins. Much like the Joker, the masked leader had his own plans, and they were unfolding beautifully. As he expected, word had spread that the Titans had survived their supposed death, and they were certainly going to make an attempt to take the city back. The psychopath had been a step ahead of the boy wonder for much too long now and enough was enough. Joker wasn't the only one who could come up with an effective plan.

The lights in the parking lot began to flicker at a quickened pace, capturing the attention of the four heroes.

"It might be time to close our eyes now guys." Robin said as he swung his cape around to shield his precious vision from the events that were about to unfold.

Beast Boy complied immediately as he morphed into a green tortoise, bringing his limbs and head inside of his comfortable shell. Cyborg took his large right hand and placed it over his lone human eye, while Starfire closed both of hers behind the locks of her hair that she draped over her beautiful face.

The men still watched in awe at the unexplainable beaming light. They were too caught up in the sight to notice the wind picking up tremendously in strength. Just then the light disappeared, and replacing its spot in the sky was a girl in a blue cloak with a hood over her face; her eyes had a beaming white glow that she herself displayed moments earlier. She had black aura flooding from her palms as her dark powers outlined her being, and she also had something new to compliment the appearance. Two wings, both black as night, swung open in pure magnificence. The wings were such an intense shade of black that the only reason the men could see them was because of the parking lot lights that were flickering.

Raven didn't like fighting; she viewed it as pointless and a nuisance. However, her demon side thought otherwise. For years she had fought her own personal battle with that side of her. Always scratching, clawing, and digging to keep her sanity and her friends safe from the side of her they should never see. This time was different though. This time she had met a compromise with her other self, for these men would know no mercy. She would lay her wrath down on these cruel beings without hesitation, and would not show remorse in doing so.

With her satisfaction growing into elation, she began her will.

"Azarath." She whispered.

The wind died abruptly.

"Metrion."

Her anti-angelic wings engulfed her entire being as the lights stopped flickering.

"_**Zinthos!"**_

Her wings flew open emphatically as a mirror image of the sun's rays burst out of her eyes and mouth, swallowing the entire parking lot in blinding white. The rays pulverized the eyes of every single corrupted citizen and already made criminal as they were brought to their knees from the head splitting pain-. Simultaneously they all screamed in pure agony as the brightness of the light pierced through their pupils and ripped apart their retinas.

They each clutched their faces as their minds failed to conceive the hellacious pain that was firing through their nerves. It was impossible to close their eyes; the ache was maddening to the point where they had completely lost all conscious effort to control their muscles.

The helpless screams were making the Titans sick. But as they told themselves earlier several times over, it was the only way. If they all took on the field of criminals they would've been smothered and killed in mere minutes. Even if they were superheroes, being outnumbered would have been the death of them. Still, it pained them to hear the cries of anguish from the human beings, even if their intentions were dark. Then suddenly they stopped.

The noises of torture lingered on as groans of misery from all the men that were now lying on the ground with their hands covering their faces. Robin wouldn't dare observe though. He wasn't sure about the others, but he was more than determined to keep his eyes. Listening to the miserable moans was enough for him. It wasn't until he heard a dry, monotone voice that he even considered lowering his cape.

"It's done." Raven informed. "You can all open your eyes now."

Each Titan cautiously removed their own sources of cover over their eyes. They were flooded with darkness, and the little bit of glow that radiated was from the parking lot light that revealed empty parking spaces. Just in front of the entrance to the mall, was a heavy amount of people groaning and rolling on their backs. Robin looked on the scene with cold eyes, but was partly scared of the answer to the question he was going to ask.

"Are any of them…?"

"No." Raven cut in quickly while meeting her leader's eyes. "Many of them will eventually regain their vision. Some more than others."

Robin nodded in understanding. He still had a hard time grasping the strength this girl exactly had. It was unreal just how much the empath could do, and that was when she was in control of what her powers did. To lose control of her emotions and go ballistic would be disastrous, to say the least. He was glad that he was no enemy of hers, and he bid good luck to Beast Boy in his head.

"Ok…" Robin said, still shaken up from the brutality that took place minutes ago. "Well we better get a move on."

In the depths of the mall security room, a green haired renegade resided anxiously. In front of an amused Joker, several TV's displayed the mass nuke that diminished the vision of dozens of men, and he had to say that it was a very entertaining show. Though he was a tad annoyed at the ease the imbeciles he recruited went down with, he wasn't worried in the least. In fact, he chuckled at the cute trick that the grey girl pulled out of her sleeve. He had no clue what in the hell she was, but he was one shove away from cutting into her with his finest knife and finding out. Curiosity wouldn't kill the cat this time.

He didn't give himself a chance to react at his own mangle of the famous saying when he noted the group approaching the building with a very unfriendly atmosphere around them. Each teen had their own remorseless scowl that tainted their faces. The disgusted look was enough to make the Joker crack a small smile in amusement.

The sight of such visible anger pleased the Joker very much so, even if they were only just slightly showing it. To display it at all would mean that he was in their head, and to be there would mean that he was well on his way to victory. He smiled maliciously, for he knew that he would make their minds his home. It would be the place he'd comfortably live in and destroy during his stay. He would grab all aspects of innocence and strangle them, stomp on even the tiniest glimmer of hope, slaughter any will that even considered arousal, and he would forever have his pale fingers wrapped around their hearts that will get colder each and every passing day. How long he'd stay and wreak havoc would be entirely up to them, but with what he's been doing he had a feeling he'd have a nice lease, since he already moved in a long time ago.

A wicked smile spread across the white face of the evil genius at the malevolence in his cynical mind. It didn't matter that they didn't die when they were supposed to, what mattered was that they would. This mall would be the last place they ever enter as the Teen Titans. Their legacy would end here, along with the city.

He rose from his chair as the Titans entered the mall and smiled diabolically. "Catch me if you can." He said quietly.

The evil genius took a quick glance at the digital clock that hung in the security room.

**12:11 AM**

With the cruelest of intentions, he walked out of the room, and initiated what would be the end.

The teen quintet entered the large mall through the Macy's access with confidence in their hearts. Even when they realized how large the store itself was, they didn't let it dim their poise. After all, they didn't spend an hour and a half planning for nothing.

"Raven, is he here?" Robin asked.

Raven closed her eyes, losing herself in her psych while in search for the Joker's. She could feel it. She could feel the inhumane evil that was second best to her own father's clawing ever so slightly at her consciousness. It baffled her how such darkness could radiate from a human being. He'd make a nice fit being someone that gets his hands dirty in Hell. The faintness of the feeling indicated that he wasn't in the store, but he was surely in the building.

She opened her eyes. "No. But he is somewhere."

Robin and his team visibly relaxed at the news. Now that he wasn't in his battle ready mind state, he noticed how torn apart the store was. Racks of clothing were thrown everywhere along with scores of trash. There was blood spattered on the floor and walls, but nothing gruesome. He began to lead the walk out of the store and tried his best to not meet the disturbed gazes of his friends. This Macy's would always be the place they entered the mall through, and there was always a nice group of people that would stop what they were doing to talk to the Teen Titans. It saddened them to think that they'd possibly never see many of them again.

Approaching the exit finally, Robin let out a heavy sigh of relief when they didn't come across any sort of carnage. They passed the cash register and saw the tray separated from the register and thrown on the ground. To no one's surprise, it was empty.

Ignoring the ridiculousness of some people, the team made an exit out of the store and walked out into the spacious domain that was the Jump City Mall. The ceiling was made of glass with no lights attached, indicating that the sun provided all the light during the day. Being on the second level of the two story building, they noticed that there were several bridges connecting from one side of the mall to the other for convenience whenever a person didn't want to walk to the end of the hall to make a U turn. The floor was made of an unforgiving shiny marble that would make one's feet scream after walking on it for more than twenty minutes. In the view that their eyes gave them, there were three possible routes for them to travel. Left, right, and forward. The situation would be quite stressful if they didn't have a half demon that could lead the way for them.

"Which way Raven?" Robin asked while narrowing his eyes.

The empath once again closed her eyes, and searched for the cynical psychological trail that belonged to the madman. Normally such a task would be near impossible since there had been so many that had already been in the building from earlier. Luckily for her, his was very much different from any normal person's. His trail screamed at her nearly as soon as she started her search, as if it was just dying to be noticed. She drew nearer and nearer to pinpointing it, and soon found his diabolical smile filling her mind. Even being a half demon, the picture made her skin crawl.

"We need to go right. Downstairs." She finally said after a few moments of silence.

Robin nodded in understanding and kindly asked his girlfriend if she could gently float him downstairs. And of course, there was no request from him she'd ever refuse.

"Well of course Robin!" She said jubilantly.

She hooked her arms underneath his pits and gracefully floated up, then descended to touch down gently on the ground. Beast Boy looked over at his girlfriend and told her that she could take Cyborg, since he was pretty sure the android didn't have built in wings that came out of his back. The changeling quickly morphed into a hummingbird, and too flapped down to the second level. He was met by a descending android as soon as he turned back into his usual green form.

"Alright if we're ready, let's go." Robin said.

Yet again, the group began their intense walk in the directed corridor. As soon as they took their first step in the direction, however, there was something amiss. It was an obvious discomfort that they all felt. For some reason it was unnatural to be in a place that should be empty, because it didn't feel empty. More than once they had heard random movements and clothes being stirred in their stores, but nothing had come out and attacked them yet though, and they didn't have time to check every store for surprises, so they kept moving.

Until they heard the elevator moving.

Joker watched from the balcony that the second level the mall supplied as the teen heroes walked through the silent hall. He gave a grizzly smile at the elevator that was now descending to meet the ground level. Normally the elevator was used for people that didn't wish to take the escalator down, but this time it'd be used for something much more meaningful instead of something so pointless.

"It's all about sending a message." He said murderously to himself.

He pulled out a stopwatch from his coat pocket and let his sinister smile grow ever so slightly. Joker gave one quick glance back at the quintet, and ran into the store to get away from this place. He didn't want to stick around for the fireworks.

The very sound of confirmation that they weren't alone was enough to make them stop abruptly. They observed the moving elevator anxiously; not really wanting to know what it was that wasn't jumping for their help.

Robin, being the intelligent detective he was, expected the worst. Plus if it was someone who wasn't a threat, they'd be begging for help or would immediately let it be known that they weren't a threat. He pulled out his boa staff and took a one step back so he would be able to push off of it to make an advance on a possible enemy. He took one quick glance behind him to see what his comrades approach was, and was pleased that they thought the same.

A green leopard that looked ready to jump on a helpless deer replaced where Beast Boy once stood, Raven had black aura surround her hands, Cyborg had his sonic cannon ready and extended to the elevator, and his girlfriend had lime green eyes with green orbs surrounding her hands. Satisfied with their poise, he brought his attention back to the elevator that had finally made contact with the ground. The doors separated from each other, and revealed the grizzly scene of merciless death.

The elevator was dampened in crimson red blood that was almost done drying, and its origins were lying on the ground with white painted faces. Much like Slade's robots, these slain people had their faces painted, and had their smiles extended by some type of blade that cut through the edges of their mouth. There was no movement, so Robin safely assumed that there were no survivors. He tried his best to conceal the queasiness of his stomach, but found the task incredibly difficult when the sounds of Cyborg vomiting began to pierce through the intimidating silence.

The android just couldn't take it.

He immediately fell to his hands and knees and let out what little content he had in his stomach profoundly. It mostly was just water, since he hadn't really had a chance to grab a bite on his way over here. Still however, his stomach contracted in severe pain, and his throat screamed, both of which begging for mercy from the ache they was experiencing. With each upchuck that came from what little intestines the robotic teen had, his stomach contracted even worse, and it was becoming nauseating. Alongside his physical pain, his heart screeched for the poor lives that were ruthlessly cut short. How could someone take out those people so cold blooded? Especially kids?

The other Titans cringed at the sound of their friend puking harshly. They managed to keep their stomach contents inside of them, but it surely wasn't easy, even if all of them had seen their fair share of brutality in their lives. Beast Boy had lived in Africa, so he'd seen plenty of animal and human carnage back in his day of living in the wild. For Starfire, there had been plenty of war on her home planet Tameran, and she'd even been caught in the middle of some battles. At one point in time, killing was the way of her people, since they felt it was the resolution to many problems. War is war, so many unspeakable things that happen on earth occurred on even the alien planet. Raven was half demon, so it was natural that such disaster didn't faze her. Her heart even raced in excitement a little at the sight, but she quickly smothered the feeling. It always made her feel a bit ashamed when her demon side made her feel joy at such a monstrosity.

Soon Cyborg's stomach finally began to let up, and he started to relax from the intense cramping of the vomiting. He kept his eyes clenched shut however, another sight of what was in the elevator and he would be chucking blood. Fighting for oxygen to get into his lungs, he clumsily tried to stand.

"We should just keep moving." He said, fighting the twisting of his intestines.

"I don't think we can dude." Beast Boy said, pointing upwards at the second level.

All of the Titans brought their eyes up in the pointed direction, and groaned inwardly. Scores of Joker painted Slade robots stood along the edges of the second floor surrounding them. Their soulless eyes looked down on the quintet of heroes with their carved murderous smiles, craving to dig into the flesh of the group. Cyborg's cybernetic eye did a fairly quick scan of the scene and guesstimated there to be a few dozen. He grimaced. They had surely expected resistance, but this might have been much. Raven had been able to just about dismantle the psych and vision of about a field of men, but those were human beings. Such a tactic would be as ineffective as putting a child in timeout.

Starfire took a step back in hesitation, unsure of what to think of the mass outnumbering. She turned to the one person who always seemed to know what to do. "Robin, what do we do?"

The said hero narrowed his eyes in agitation. Technically, everything was still on track. They had expected resistance, even quite a bit, but it was still aggravating to think that possibly they may have miscalculated just how much they'd encounter. He knew Raven's abilities would do nothing unless it involved the city losing their team of superheroes along with its recent invader, so she was out of the question. There was only one thing to do.

"We fight." Robin said boldly.

"Sounds good!" Cyborg proclaimed in fury as he raised his sonic cannon at the heartless androids to his left. Without another thought he fired a beam of blue from his arm now turned weapon, and sprayed the edge of its occupants. Many evaded the blast and jumped onto the second floor to get even ground on the heroes, but there were also several who were caught in the metallic hero's outraged crosshairs. He growled ferociously as a group of robots ran at him eagerly, aching to dig their sharp fingers into what little flesh he had. Aggressively he brought his arm down after changing it back, and threw a fist into the face of the first one that approached him. Easily crushing the first robot, he kept his fist in its landed position and turned it into his cannon yet again, and fired off brutally on the remainder of the on comers. He made an effortless sweep of his victims, and searched anxiously for who was next.

Starfire didn't make the first advance in her confrontation. One, she didn't enjoy battle now that she'd grown accustom to earth ways, two, being the first to strike would leave her vulnerable. Soon, a Joker robot with a laser blaster made its advance on her with long beams flailing relentlessly. The robot placed both of its hands on the handle of the weapon, and ripped a never ending beam of bright red that was destined for the area in between the alien princess's eyes. Quickly reacting, she unleashed her own wrath and let out a green power flow from her already forest eyes. The two forces met halfway and remained at a stalemate for several seconds. Growing tired of this, the alien princess let out a frustrated how that boosted the intensity in her beams, overcoming the opposition and melting the robots head off.

Robin observed his girlfriends triumph and smirked inwardly to himself. He loved how overly sweet the girl could be, but it was even nicer to see her in battle. It let him know that she would always be able to handle her own weight in battle. His thoughts were quickly discarded when he was forced to narrowly dodge an oncoming metallic fist that just missed his skull. With his unnatural reactions, he narrowed his eyes and rebounded by sweeping his boa staff at the legs of the robot, sending the object into the air. With an angry growl, he raised his staff as he brought himself up and pierced the top through the torso of the android emphatically. Robin had put so much force into the stab that the staff actually had penetrated the marble floor that decorated the mall. The robot dangled lifelessly in the middle of the pole that had impaled it, and Robin soon thought of a smooth ploy. He scanned the room in search of a certain changeling, and soon located him in seconds. The masked hero smiled mischievously.

"Beast Boy!"

The green raptor turned its head away from its mangled steel pray to look at the boy wonder, giving his undivided attention.

His masked leader used the bulging muscles in his forearms to rip the staff out from the marble décor, and then used the strength in his stomach and arms to swing the robot off the pole and into the direction of his green teammate.

"Catch!" Robin yelled.

The raptor soon reacted and quickly morphed into a green gorilla. In one motion, the primate caught the robot by its foot, and swung the android around violently, sending other robots flying after being struck by their metallic comrade. With a resounding roar, he angrily threw the robot at a group that was beginning to make their advance towards him. The group soared backwards from the impact, and into the punishing hard walls of the mall with a blood curdling thud. Satisfied with his animalistic tactic, he morphed into his human form and searched for his empath girlfriend. He was more than shocked to find her a few feet behind him floating in a lotus position with her eyes closed.

"Rae! Now's not the time to be meditating!" He yelled to her.

She cracked open one eye in irritation. "I'm trying to find Joker! Now stop talking and make sure I'm not bothered!" She shot back.

Beast Boy had almost forgotten why they were at the mall in the first place, and was taken back by the reminder the empath unintentionally gave him. He gave her a strong nod, and back pedaled to protect her from any foolish entity that'd even think about approaching her.

Seeing that the changeling now had her back, she closed her eyes and let her mind wander about the structure of Jump City Mall. He was near. She could feel the madness that radiated off his soul burn her like she was standing right next to a bonfire. Raven still found it hard to comprehend how something human could have such an evil feel to it. Doing her best to ignore the intensity of the firefight that was going on around her, she continued to search, and ruled out that he was upstairs. He was downstairs. Yes, a few stores over… But he was moving. No… running? He was trying to escape!

She shot her eyes open while remaining in her floating lotus position, and frantically searched for her leader. Successfully finding him tangled with a creepily smiling robot, she yelled to him. "Robin! He's getting away!"

Robin normally wouldn't have heard much when he was engaged in battle. He was usually horrendously intense when it came to combat, his teammates knew that personally, and all noise outside of the grunts and painful groans his opponent would give would be shut out. However, the announcement of the madman getting away rang loud and clear in his ears.

"Stop him!" Robin yelled while fighting for possession of his staff.

Raven nodded in understanding, and closed her eyes yet again.

"Azarath, metrion, zinthos." She said plainly.

A shadow like mimic of the girl rose from her back in a ghost like manner, and zoomed off in the dirty walls of the mall. She had no idea which part of the mall in particular the evil genius was in, but it wouldn't take her long to find him. The more intense and powerful the soul was, the more pressure she would feel in her own psych. It would be a somewhat painful experience, since she was technically in her psych form, but her pain would be ignored during her pursuit.

After several seconds of hectically flying through walls and stores, the pressure began to build, and she felt like a bed of bricks were resting on her head. She searched further and further until the familiar sight of green hair screamed out to her where he was. Joker was running in a large hallway towards the exit doors in a very clumsy pace as he struggled to keep his own feet underneath him from the urgency he was striding with. Raven could see the panic on his face, but she couldn't feel it, which was odd. Shrugging it off, she darted off towards the head of the evil genius before she could black out, and entered the mind of the madman to gain control of his limbs.

Joker immediately stopped when his head started to pound relentlessly from a staggering head ache. The pain was so intense and mind numbing that he felt like his brain was going to melt and bleed out through his ears in any moment. It almost made him laugh. He would have laughed too, if he even had control of his own lips.

Raven was disgusted, to say the least. The mind she now controlled was by far the filthiest thing she had ever felt, and was the most cynical mind she had ever been inside of. Just being inside of this unspeakable place was almost enough for her to abort mission and jump out of her new skin. As she continued to loathe her now position, the empath noticed that the disturbed man was fighting to push her out. Raven easily refocused herself, and shoved down the feeble attempt at retaking it.

In the hallway, the evil genius stood bent over in eye bulging pain with his hands holding his head. It was excruciating until finally it all stopped suddenly. He was panting in disbelief of the magnitude the agony came at. Not sure what to think of it, he thought it'd be smart to just get going again.

Joker tried to move his limbs, but found them to be completely immobile. His legs would not listen to the demands his brain would send them, and neither would any other part of his body. He began to grow irritated, then finally relaxed in defeat when his legs began to move on their own. He figured that there was only one person that was probably capable of this.

'_Dammit.'_ He thought.

As his body rotated to turn back around and head to the battlefield, he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror and found his usual eye color to no longer be present. Instead, they were replaced with a deep, captivating violet.

Cyborg threw the last of the robots into the now towering heap of scrap metal they were building off of their victories. He clapped his hands free of the dirtiness that went into his fighting, and declared their win to anyone who was listening.

"That's the last of them!"

Robin narrowed his eyes at the mountain of metal. "Yeah, but Raven went to go stop Joker from escaping. She isn't back yet."

"I'm right here." A smooth voice said.

All the Titans turned in the direction the voice came from vigorously, and growled at the sight of the madman. He was walking towards the group of heroes in a steady pace, with an atmosphere of confidence surrounding him. Noticing this alone aggravated Robin to no end.

"Finally came out of hiding clown?!"

The white faced man stopped and spoke in a dry voice. "Robin. Shut up. It's me, Raven."

Starfire looked closely at their new enemy, and realized that the news was correct. The man's natural eye color wasn't only rid of its madness, but it was replaced with Raven's drawing purple.

"She is correct Robin." Starfire said, resting a hand on his shoulder for him to relax.

Robin made the same observation his girlfriend had, and instantly eased his muscles which were starting to ache from the constant tension.

Satisfied with his withdraw, Raven decided to make her way out of the rancid mind this man had. A black shadowy figure came out of the madman's back, and he fell face first to the marble ground while she gracefully flew into her own rightful body. She slowly opened her eyes, and immediately shivered at the memories of the evil dampened place she had just come from. Cautiously, she stretched her legs out slowly to not get any excruciating cramps, and stood up to face her team. To her dismay, they were all giving her concerned looks.

Frowning at the uncertain looks, Beast Boy answered her question before she could ask it. "Rae, are you ok? Your nose…"

The empath slowly brought her pale hand to her nostrils, and felt a warm, chunky liquid. She pulled her finger out into view, and frowned even deeper at the sight of her blood. The blood itself not only made her frown, but the cause of it upset her even more. This was the first time this had ever happened when encountering someone else's mind. Could this man really be that twisted?

"It must have been me encountering his mind." She said, still looking at her blood.

"Too much for you to handle baby?" Joker asked as he sat on his rear with his hands supporting him and his legs spread open. "Was I too rough?"

Beast Boy widened his eyes in fury, and nearly lashed out at the freak that harmed his precious empath. The only thing that stopped him was her assuring hand, which warmed his heart even in these roughest of times. He slouched and slumped his shoulders in sadness at the sight of her blood, and kept his anger in check until it was appropriate to be released.

The madman had a crazed smile on his face until it was washed away with a ruthless swing of Robin's boa staff. Joker was flung to his side from the bone crunching blow, and stayed in that position with his hand holding the destination of the pole for a few moments. He returned to his original sitting position, and yelled in somewhat contained pain.

"Damn! That was a swing!" He said, still checking his mouth for blood.

The Boy Wonder interrupted his search when he grabbed the evil genius by the collar violently. "It's over madman." Robin said coldly.

"Over?" Joker questioned. "_Over?!"_

Robin narrowed his eyes while his team raised a single eyebrow at this insanity of this being.

Joker continued. "Oh you silly little birdie, when will you learn that with me, it is never over?"

The masked hero almost felt like hanging his head in defeat. He knew where this was going.

Joker began to laugh mildly as he reached into his pocket, and pulled out the stopwatch that he'd been keeping tabs on for a few hours now. He took a look at it, and smiled sinisterly at it as he turned it around to show the Boy Wonder.

It read **10:57**

In the coldest of voices he spoke. "When I told the city that everything was fair game, I never did deny that I had a nuke."


	11. The End

And here it is! The final chapter!

* * *

Robin widened his eyes in maddening shock. His consciousness began to embed itself inside the Joker's ruthless eyes as the Boy Wonder started to pay less and less attention to what was happening in front of him. With each passing second Robin found himself falling further into the abyss of madness that the Joker held within his gaze. Could they really have been fooled again?

Meanwhile, the other Titans stomachs fell so hard that it could almost be heard in the swishing of their intestines. They gaped at the cynical man that their leader stood atop of with fearful eyes. Fearful because of the surprise the cynical bastard had for them, and fearful for their leader losing his better judgement. The seconds passed by painfully slow as their ears burned more and more until it felt like they were inside of ovens. As the man's laughter grew ever so slightly, the hairs on the back of their neck shot up with the burst of chills that flowed through their skin.

The evil genius was simply giggling at the boy's surprise, to him it was priceless. The 'Boy Wonder' was truly at a loss for words and that alone satisfied his endless hunger for destruction. Even that deceptive mask he wore couldn't mask the oncoming rage and utter frustration. Neither of which, scared the madman.

"Cat got your tongue?" He finally said after managing to control his chuckle.

The fearless leader nearly lost all sense of his dignity at the arrogant remark. Every fiber of his being was pleading with him that he just sent a barrage of fists into the cruel man's face until it was impossible for anyone to recognize him. Robin's fingers twitched horrendously at the not so bad idea, and his eyes quivered as his vision started to go blurry from his blinding anger. If it weren't for the team empath, he might have satisfied what his body wanted.

Raven quickly pulled the masked hero off of the chuckling madman with her black aura, and stood him up to face the rest of the team. "We can worry about him later Robin. We need to find that bomb right now." She said sternly.

Grinding his teeth at an unhealthy level of intensity, he wasn't given the opportunity to respond when a red beam of light grazed his spiky head of hair. He quickly snapped his head the direction the blast came from, and gave a harsh scowl at another wave of Slade robots running towards the quintet of heroes.

The masked leader growled in frustration. "Beast Boy, take Cyborg to look for the bomb! Raven, follow them so you can take him in case he's needed!" Robin said, pointing at the Joker in disgust. "Starfire, you and I will follow them and give them cover! Let's go!" He finished as he turned around to snag the stopwatch out of the Joker's hand.

His loyal comrades quickly reacted and did as they were told without question. Beast Boy morphed into a pterodactyl and clasped his knife like feet on to the metal shoulders of his best friend, and took off. Raven raised her hand at the crooked genius and engulfed his body in black as she gracefully levitated in the same direction her boyfriend went. Starfire hurryingly hooked her arms underneath the armpits of her relentless leader and backpedaled in flight as her and Robin covered the backs of their teammates.

Beast Boy and his metallic passenger made a hectic sweep of the whole mall in search of the time bomb that was waiting to obliterate all life in the city. They weaved in and out of blasters and building construction while Cyborg switched the vision in his cybernetic eye to radioactive, so the bomb would shine like a light bulb in a pitch black room. The heroic android growled in frustration after seeing nothing but dimness, this was taking far too long and they were already on limited time.

Robin too was beginning to grow irritated at their lack of success. Joker's recreation of Slade's robots seemed to be pouring out of every store they passed, and it felt like the barrage of blasters was never ending. Many had grazed his skin and face, leaving him with burns that would take a while to go away, if ever. And the jerking his girlfriend would do to evade the oncoming attacks was threatening to wrench his shoulders right out of their sockets.

The Boy Wonder narrowed his eyes after casting out an explosive that easily destroyed a group of robots, he was beginning to run low on explosive discs, and he knew his girlfriend couldn't take on the load of fighting off a field of enemies while carrying a burden. He quickly pulled the watch he took from Joker into view to see just how much time they had left.

**8:07**

"Eight minutes Cyborg! Have you found it?!" He screamed ahead of him.

Cyborg grimaced at the new knowledge of time. The nuke was still nowhere in sight and they were getting close to running into dead ends.

"No! Not yet!"

As the metallic hero finished his sentence, a flash of bright red rushed across his vision.

"Wait! Beast Boy, stop! I found it!"

The green pterodactyl immediately complied with its companion as it flapped its enormous, boney wings to catch wind and slow to a stop on the ground. Once Cyborg's feet touched down, he took off in a mad sprint to the firefly like object that flooded his vision of darkness.

Beast Boy morphed into a cheetah to keep up with his now suddenly speedy friend. He wasn't sure if Cyborg could see where he was going since he was on a hell bent sprint for a door that was labeled '**Authorized Personal Only'** without any intention of stopping. The changeling soon realized that he was correct when the android easily ran through the weak wooden door that stood zero chance against the half robot. The green cheetah gracefully leapt into the security room and slid to a stop at the sight of doom.

Raven entered the room with a dizzy madman in her possession of magic, and too stopped abruptly at the intimidating sight. She smothered her demonic excitement, and looked at her metallic friend to see what his expression was.

Cyborg's face was cold. The bomb was an exact replica of the phony one they were sent to deal with earlier that day. The only reason he knew this one was real was because of how blinding the radiation was to his cybernetic eye, and he could practically feel the heat melt his armor.

Seconds later, his fearless leader poked his head in to see what his team was doing and felt his stomach fall at the sight that captivated the attention of his friends. Theirs and the possible deaths of thousands were resting dangerously right in front of them. He noticed the several TV's that were at the front of the room and quickly shook off his stun when he saw Joker robots begin to fill the screens.

"Cyborg, get to it! We got your back! Raven, come out and help but leave him!" He barked, gesturing towards the evil genius who still appeared to be trying to shake off his dizziness from the intense flying he went through. "Beast Boy, stay here and watch him! You got five minutes and thirty seconds Cy." He finished as he tossed the stopwatch to his metallic teammate and handcuffs to his green one. "Cuff him."

Cyborg caught it smoothly and watched his teammates, minus a changeling, exit the room with haste. He made eye contact with his best friend who gave him an assuring nod after morphing back into a human to quickly cuff the genius to the leg of a table. After making sure the cuffs were more than tight, Beast Boy returned to his cheetah form. He kept his lifeless eyes on the madman who had now gained consciousness. The metallic hero wasted no time and got to work on the device. Again on the bomb there was a control box that had a small lever to it. Carefully opening it, he was slightly relieved to see a rainbow set of wires and electrical currents flow through the sleeping monster.

Beast Boy meanwhile was starting to wish that he was outside getting shot at than keeping watch of the mastermind behind the entire diabolical plot. The changeling could hardly make eye contact with the monster, who wore the smuggest of smiles. The green hero felt more and more uncomfortable with being in the evil eyes of the Joker, who for all he knew was thinking of a way to skin him like an animal and put him on his wall like a trophy. To make the situation a bit easier, he turned his attention towards the warzone that was going on outside.

He could see his leader fearlessly fling himself into clusters of robots and defeat them singlehandedly. Robin had his boa staff drawn and he was wielding it masterfully as he swung left and right at the metallic heads of the creepily painted faces of his enemies. Effortlessly he evaded and attacked the scores of minions that would make their own futile swipe at him. With the absurd strength in his legs, he jumped onto the shoulders of a robot, and stamped an explosive disc on its temple. He screamed from adrenaline as he again jumped from its shoulders, and brought his staff down in a mighty swing on the head of another android, utterly crushing it while the other one he handled exploded into scrap.

Starfire flew overhead of her triumph boyfriend and nose dived into a pack that attempting to make a sneaky advance on the Boy Wonder from behind. In a loud crash her fists drove into the torso of a robot and into the marble floor of the mall. She quickly brought her glowing fists up and sprayed the entire landscape with righteous starbolts that were destroying almost as much of the building as they were enemies. Smoke puffed and flooded the spacious hall as destruction raged on. A blue cloaked empath soon shot through the smoke and made her own advance on her targets.

She raised her hand at a pair of robots that were hiding in some sort of foxholes while firing aimlessly and covered them in blackness. Raven began to initiate the thrashing of the lifeless beings, until she felt a white hot pain burst in her leg. The pain was so excruciating that her concentration shattered and she fell to the ground grasping the limb in ache. She cracked open one eye to check her surroundings, and found a pair of robots looking down on her with murderously drawn smiles. There was no way for her to concentrate enough for her to save herself, the pain was throbbing and it was firing through her nerves. She was helpless.

Beast Boy saw the scene unfold and immediately sprinted off in blinding speed to aid his damsel in distress, leaving the maniac with his best friend. Not registering what he just did, he leapt onto the robot that raised its blaster at the girl, and dug his claws into the metallic flesh of the minion. The other one took a step forward to dig its own fingers into the fur of the cheetah, but was easily casted aside a few dozen yards when Raven pulled together just enough concentration to merely flick the enemy.

Cyborg didn't notice his solitude with the Joker; he was too wrapped in disarming the bomb that could lead to their fiery deaths. The madman, however, did notice. The evil genius smiled diabolically as he started in on the vulnerable teen.

"Do you wanna know how I got these scars?"He asked.

The android was so thrown off at the sound of his voice that he nearly stopped what he was doing and looked at the madman. Still, he answered with his mind still on task. "Not really."

The Joker chuckled lightly. "I got them the same way those people in the elevator got theirs, except I did this to myself. What was on their faces was my own handiwork actually."

Cyborg was beginning to grow irritated and off task. "Beast Boy, shut him up!"

"They squirmed and asked me, 'why am I doing this', and ya know what I said?" Joker continued. "I said 'because what's anarchy without a little madness'." He finished with a chuckle.

The android had had enough. Why in the world was Beast Boy not shutting this lunatic up? He snapped his head back to see what the changeling could be doing, and slightly gaped when he noticed his absence.

Joker gave Cyborg a frustratingly smug smile as he locked eyes with him. "It's just you and me kiddo." He said playfully.

Cyborg quickly snapped his head back to the bomb. The worst thing he could do is give this freak attention.

'_Just ignore him._' He thought.

He brought the watch into his vision to see just how much time he was working with. He grimaced.

**1:37**

There was no time to waste. He held the demise of countless innocent people in his hands and it was up to him to stop it. His stomach churned relentlessly with each second that passed by. Sweat started to pour heavily from what skin he had left from his accident. The intensity of the situation was wreaking havoc in his already torn mind, and if he didn't know any better he'd think his neck was starting to break. This was entirely too important to pay any insane criminal attention.

He looked through the wires he had burned through so far and grunted at the lack of success he had been having. The android narrowed his eyes at the beep of the stopwatch alerting him that he had a minute left. In front of Cyborg were three wires that had a steel casing around them, protecting them from fiends such as the metallic Titan. He turned his index finger into a blow torch started to carefully blow through the casings.

"So what did you see when I slipped my mind rape drug in ya?" Joker asked.

Cyborg did his best to ignore the villain as he finished off a casing, he then casted his eyes at the watch.

**0:47**

"Was it the S.T.A.R. Labs you saw?" Joker again asked to get further inside the head of the vulnerable teen.

The android grinded his teeth at an unhealthy level from the mention of such a horrifying memory. His flame finally pierced the casing of the second wire as he looked at the stopwatch again.

**0:35**

"Oh yeah, I know all about that." Joker continued. "About your parents and how you were crippled. Lemme tell ya, it was quite a read. What was it like to see your parents die all over again? To see yourself become a monster for a second time?"

Cyborg couldn't take it anymore. His rage was mounting more and more as tears started to sting his eye. He almost burned right through the wire when his anger demanded all of his attention. With a blue, yellow, and red wire now present, he looked at the watch and turned his blow torch into a small blade.

**0:20**

"How many times have you replayed that in your head today?" The cynical man asked.

Cyborg was losing it. His better judgment was quickly fading, and his mind began to go rampant as the watch ticked with each second. His thoughts were going a mile a minute from the head splitting stress that was crushing his psych. Everything was going entirely too fast and it was starting to crash onto his weakened mind. The lone eye he had darted from wire to wire, then to the watch.

**0:07**

He had to do something.

**0:05**

Red?

"Oh and let me just say, it was fun to watch." Joker finished.

**0:02**

Yellow!

The teen swiftly swiped his blade at the wire as he clenched his eyes shut.

…

After a few more seconds of continuous breathing, he cracked open one eye to see that the world around him wasn't burning mercilessly in radioactive flames. Curiously, he looked at the watch.

**0:01**

He turned his attention back to the wires, and saw the yellow wire he targeted was severed right at its midpoint. Normally, he'd jump for joy, but his anger still clouded his mind and fogged his judgment. In one swift motion, he turned towards the maniac and shoved his now sonic cannon arm into his temple, slamming the Joker's head into the wall.

"_You know what'll be fun to watch?!" _Cyborg screamed. "_Seeing you beg me to stop melting your face off!"_

The Joker laughed. "Oh yea that sure would be huh?!"

His plan was flowing perfectly. Whether or not the bomb went off, the Titans would end here. Their legacy would die from the hands of one of them murdering someone. Their dignity would be washed away and they wouldn't be able to face each other. They could shove their self righteousness up their asses.

"_Let's see it then!" _Joker screamed.

That was it. The android screamed in anguish as a tear streamed down his cheek. He was going to kill this man for putting him through hell. The teen shut his eye and pulled the trigger.

He panted heavily from the intensity. He killed someone. An act that he possibly would never live down, but still didn't entirely regret. He opened his clenched eye to look at the remains of the evil genius, and raised an eyebrow in curiosity at the absence of the body.

He quickly scanned the room, and found his teammates looking at him with sad eyes. Next to them in Raven's magical grasp was a pouting white faced villain.

Cyborg then felt an immeasurable amount of shame swell up inside of his heart. He nearly killed someone in front of his team, the people he despised disappointing. The android fell to his knees and slumped his shoulders miserably, as he started to speak messily through his sobs.

"I'm… I'm s-sorry…"

Robin walked over to his good friend with the friendliest of atmospheres as he continued to wallow in his disgrace. He wasn't disappointed at the teen's mental walls breaking down. Instead, he admired the endurance he displayed in withstanding the master villain. The Boy Wonder didn't know if he could've done any better. With a tired smile, he kneeled down to his teammate.

"You saved the city. Don't even worry about it." He said softly.

Cyborg slowly lifted his head to meet his leader's eyes, then to the exhausted group of teens that were giving their worn out smiles. He was terribly glad to not be thrown off to the side by them from his weakness. God only knew what would happen if he lost them and was left on his own.

"C'mon." Robin said, extending his hand. "Let's go home.

"Home sweet home huh?" An Arkham officer said to a scowling Joker as he slammed a door that was labeled '**Solitary Confinement**'.

The officer locked the door and turned to face Robin and his beautiful alien girlfriend. He couldn't help but noticed how beat up the two looked.

"We'll make sure he stays where he is this time Mr. Robin. He'll hardly know what daylight looks like after a few months. Is there anything we can help you with before you make your way out?"

The Boy Wonder shook his head. He just wanted to go home, and Jump City was a long way from Arkham. He gave a quick glance at a clock and nearly threw a tantrum when it read six o'clock. "No thank you." He answered. "But if you run into trouble, you know who to call."

The officer smiled underneath his helmet, and shook the hero's hand.

Robin and his girlfriend began to make their way back up to the chopper that had brought them on the roof of the asylum. Robin's legs were so weak that they quivered with each step he took, and he envied his girlfriend's ability to float. However, her heritage couldn't hide her appetite that was begging loudly to be satisfied. Neither of them could remember the last time they had a decent meal. As they ascended up the stairs onto the roof, Starfire began to wonder where exactly Robin had sent her teammates off to.

"Robin? Where have you sent the others?"

Robin looked so worn out that Starfire for a moment didn't know if he had heard her or not until he spoke. "Raven was sent to go get the Harold to get rid of the nuke then get the Justice League out of out of that thing they were stuck in. Bruce will probably wanna meet with me as soon as I'm able to. Beast Boy and Cyborg were sent to broadcast to the city that everything was now under control and that there was order again. Then when they're done with that they're gonna meet with the governor to inform him of the mayor's death. So they'll all still be pretty busy for a while."

They finally entered the chopper and felt their eyes get heavy as they started to take their five hour flight back home.

"Oh, well, I am glad that everything is ok again." Starfire said as she rested her head on the Boy Wonder's shoulder.

"Yeah." He responded, began to fall into the depths of slumber. "Me too."

Starfire and Robin walked through the long corridor that lead to Common room doors in absolute exhaustion. They both had such weary eyes that they nearly didn't see the note that was posted on the door. With barely open eyes, he pulled the slip of paper and read it.

_Robin,_

_They got in about an hour ago. They did a great job of getting everything back together. We'll watch the city, take the day off, you've earned it. Call me when you muster up the energy to even speak. You've done well for yourself._

_Bruce._

The Boy Wonder was somewhat touched at the kind letter his old master had left him, but also a tad against the idea of taking the day off. However, the sleep his body screamed would not allow him to make a fuss about it. He then realized that he didn't know who 'they' was in the letter. Halfheartedly preparing himself, him and his girlfriend walked through the doors into their living room, again disappointed at the damage that had been done on their home. The spacious domain had burn marks all along the walls and pieces of furniture strewn everywhere. Their windows were blown in and glass decorated the floor. The morning rays of the sun filled the room as the comfortable autumn breeze made Robin feel perfect.

They casted their eyes over to the sofa that was now split into two different, smaller pieces from a blast that occurred in the middle of the couch. One piece was as large as a regular recliner, and resting on it was a sleeping empath with a slumbering green dog in her lap. The other piece was vacant and was just big enough for two people. The couple then shifted their eyes to the kitchen in search of the Titan that saved theirs and thousands of other lives. They found him with his body in a chair and his head resting on a table with saliva spilling out of his mouth. The unique couple smiled at the scene. What an absurd two days it had been.

"I guess we should start cleaning this mess up as soon as possible." Robin said with a yawn.

"Yes." His girlfriend agreed as she took his hand. "But for now, let us rest."

Robin turned to his girlfriend and smirked at her wisdom. He was in no condition to do any type of activity and probably would pass out from lack of sleep if he even tried anything. With a nod, they made their way over to the vacant piece of furniture. Clumsily, they sunk into the couch and Starfire snuggled her head into her boyfriend's shoulder, as she fell asleep as soon as her eyes shut.

The Boy Wonder, however, was able to maintain consciousness for a few more seconds. He looked around the destroyed living room, then at his family. The scene was quite fitting, no matter how destructive everything seemed or how hopeless it appeared, they always had each other. That alone would always be enough to push them over the edge to triumph. He couldn't be more proud of them as a leader.

For a whole day now they had gained and lost. They each received scars that would probably never go away, and some old wounds were reopened. Amidst the chaos, however, a flower bloomed. Despite the epic peril from possibly the master of all villains, they found love and undying hope. Both of which pushing them past their limits.

Robin gave another smile at his team as he fluttered his eyes shut. He decided that the mess really could wait. And then his mind went blank as he explored the greatest sleep he had had in a long time.

* * *

The End.

I hope you all enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing it! Thank you to all the followers that gave me a chance. I've already got an idea for another fic that will focus on BBRae. Everybody loves them and frankly, I ship them very hard. So I'm going to get a few chapters out of the way before I post it on here. I encourage you all though to follow me as an author so you can read it! If this fic wasn't really your favorite, it was my first one so I can only get better right? You'll enjoy my next one. I actually love the idea and all the plotting I'm doing into it. So please follow me! Thanks for reading!


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